Son was found dead in wood after search
JON MACPHERSON
AMAN was found hanged in woodland near his home after a police search, an inquest heard.
Mark Davies, 48, was last seen at his home on Rothwell Avenue in Accrington on August 2 last year and was found dead three days later on August 5.
Blackburn Coroners Court heard how Mr Davies was diagnosed with schizophrenia and drug-induced psychosis and had been liaising with the community mental health team since 2006.
Mr Davies had been suffering with mental health issues since he was 17 and was being treated for ‘emotionally unstable personality disorder’.
The inquest heard that he had made previous suicide attempts including threatening to jump off the Accrington Viaduct in April 2017 - four months before his death.
Pathologist Dr Al Mudaffer said the cause of death was hanging.
Mr Davies’s mum Dorothy Westwell said they helped with the search and that they could not understand why he had taken his own life.
She told the inquest: “He got these things in his head that he had to kill himself. Why did he do it at the end? He was per- fectly all right. I can’t understand why. It’s a horrible thing.”
Mr Davies’s stepfather Kevin Westell said they had last seen him in Accrington town centre three weeks before his death.
He said: “He looked so well and the best I have seen him. He looked so happy.”
Charlotte Wardrobe, a care coordinator in the community mental health team, said Mr Davies had been taking part in a ‘life skills course’ since November 2016 and he was ‘very willing to engage with things that were offered to him’.
She told the inquest that she last saw Mr Davies in July 2017 and that his mental health issues were ‘much improved’ and he had no thoughts of suicide.
DCI Nicola Bithell, of Lancashire Police, told the inquest that Mr Davies was reported missing to police on August 4 and was classed as a ‘high risk missing person’.
A wide-scale search was carried out involving divisional response officers, police dogs, mountain rescue and air support.
DCI Bithell said: “I’m devastated that we didn’t find him before it came to this conclusion.”
Coroner Richard Taylor said he was a ‘much loved and much missed’ man and recorded a conclusion of suicide.