Cliff fall tragedy of twins carrying parents’ ashes
TWINS plunged to their deaths from the White Cliffs of Dover carrying their late parents’ ashes, an inquest heard yesterday.
The bodies of Muriel and Bernard Burgess, 59, were found on New Year’s Day.
The twins had lived with their parents almost all their lives and had struggled to accept their deaths, the inquest was told.
One of the twins’ rucksacks contained ashes with their mother’s name while the other’s rucksack held their father’s ashes.
Detective Sergeant Stuart Ward said that their father, also called Bernard, died in 1984 and their mother, also called Muriel, died 30 years later.
Struggling financially, the childless twins sold the family home in North Wales to buy a caravan together in the village of Elton, Cheshire. On Christmas Day last year, they were questioned by police in Dover after being spotted near the edge of the cliffs.
Muriel told police that they had travelled down for a walking tour and officers took no further action.
By chance, they plunged to their deaths at the same spot as Army veteran Scott Enion, 45, a victim of Gulf War Syndrome.
The former soldier was caught on CCTV leaping off the 200ft-high drop at Langdon Cliffs, Dover.
Officers searching for Mr Enion, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, found the twins’ bodies as well. Coroner Patricia Harding said Muriel and Bernard were “reclusive” and struggling to accept their parents’ deaths but added that their falls could have been “simply a tragic accident”.
She recorded an open verdict on them but ruled that Mr Enion had committed suicide under stress after seeing his comrades killed in war.
No relatives of the twins or of Mr Enion attended the inquest in Maidstone.