Genealogy Chat

Thank you for your replies Julie & Brian... Very interesting reading Sam

Hi there I was a detective for 20 odd years , now retired,and involved in many deaths. The coroners court is not a criminal court and there is never a finding of guilt. He or she has certain things the law says he must do. The person must be identified usually by a member of family who saw the body. How the person died. The pathologist will provide this evidence irrespective if the drugs can be bought over the counter or not, that comes later. Did those drugs found in the deceased kill him in the quantities found? If the answer is yes, the coroner will try and look at any background to determine state of mind. Has there been suicide attempts in the past, mental history, depression, pressures at work etc that may hint or not that it was intentional. If there was evidence about him over prescribing himself the coroner will take that on board as evidence. There are several verdicts a coroner can come up with and advise the jury which way to go. An 'open verdict' means just that. There may be further evidence in the future from a police investigation as to how he came by the controlled drugs that a third party gave him the concoction or a dealer involved etc etc. If evidence comes to light that may change the original verdict, the coroner can reopen the case and hear further evidence but it will be after the conclusion of any police investigation which i would suspect did take place because of the drugs involved and the person was quite young and would be regarded, I suspect, as a 'suspicious death' I hope this helps a little. Regards Brian

If this man had not slept for four days it sounds as though he may have used some form of anphetamine or possibly cocaine, users ofter stay up without sleeping for days on end, then as the term is used to avoid the come down & hallucinations due to the lack of sleep they use a drug to help them sleep or take the edge off what they are feeling, in which cases could be Heroin, methodone or any form of pain killer including vallum.At a guess i would say this is what has happened and the guy overdosed.

any more input welcomed

Oh right.....I thought you had managed to get a copy!! I think his case was not managed well by the Dr's. Merry

The above is actually from the local newspaper. Not the actual report it's self. I didn't think it was possible to obtain a copy of that. Sam

I've just googled the drug name and it's a heroin substitute like methadone. Merry

No none at all Sam

Why had he not slept for four days? (rhetorical Q!) Have you checked local newspapers for more sensationalist versions of this inquest? Whilst the info in a newspaper might be exagerated, maybe it could give clues (if it was reported, that is) Merry

So there's no indication of what he was being prescribed these drugs for??.......I would have thought that would be significant for the inquest...... Merry

I obtained the death cert to get the inquest date, and received the inquest report from the local archives today. DRUGS MIXTURE KILLED MAN (31) John Smith of High Street Oxford regularly finished his week’s supply of prescription drugs in about 2 days, an inquest in Oxford heard last Wednesday. His widow Mrs Susan Smith told the deputy coroner that diconal, a narcotic analgesic, was among the drugs prescribed for her husband. He had seemed all right on July 5th when he told her he was going out with a neighbour. He went upstairs but half an hour later she found him asleep on the bedroom floor. He had not slept for 4 days, so she left him. Mrs Smith said her husband, who was 31, was still asleep when she went to bed but the next morning she could not rouse him. He had never talked about taking his own life He regularly took more drugs than were prescribed. Dr Alan Jones pathologist, said Mr Smith had taken 4 different drugs, including diconal of which there was a high in-take. It was this that caused the narcotic poisoning that killed Mr Smith. Mr Hall, recording an open verdict, said he was not convinced that death was a deliberate act.

Can I have your opinions on this inquest report from 1982, it is my friend's half brother. They did not grow up together. She knew he had died but was unaware of the circumstances.I have read through it several times and have come to my own conclusion, but it is supposition. Nothing is known about this man's life... please tell me what you think, and be honest...