This article is from page 4 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A DOOLIN woman died from hy- pothermia after her wellingtons got Stuck in mud in a field near her home, an inquest has heard.
Ann Doherty (51) was found dead outside her home at Ballyvara, Doo- lin, on December 12, 2006, after she had not been seen since the previous evening.
An inquest into her death heard from her brother John. He said he called to his family home – where Ann lived with another brother – on the evening of December 11.
At around 3.40pm he crossed to
the farmyard and saw Ann walk- ing towards the gate and going into the field. He said he presumed some clothes had fallen off the clothesline and she was going in to the field to retrieve them.
“When I saw her going into the field I presumed she was okay,” he said.
The following morning, his brother Tom telephoned him and asked him if he had seen Ann. He went straight to Ann’s house, where he met his brothers Tom and Martin.
In his deposition to the inquest, Tom Doherty said his brother Mar- tin had telephoned him on the morn- ing of December 12. He said there
was no-one at the house, which was unusual as Ann would normally be WeKer
He said he went to the house and they went into a field nearby and began to search around. There they found Ann’s body near a wall, some distance from the house.
Garda Andrew Monahan told the inquest he went to the Doherty’s home on the morning of December 12. There he met Tom Doherty, with who he was acquainted through his work with Doolin Coastguard.
He said he saw Ann Doherty’s body, part of which had been damaged by wildlife. Assistant State Pathologist
Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a post mortem examination on Ms Do- ates um YaecmoLere AA
She said there were multiple super- ficial injuries to the body, but they had not caused death.
“This is a difficult case,” she said. “It appeared her wellingtons had got stuck in mud. In my view, Ms Do- herty died from hypothermia, after getting stuck in muddy terrain,” she said.
Coroner Isobel O’Dea noted that the cause of death was hypothermia. “It seems most likely that Ann’s wel- lingtons got stuck in some mud and unfortunately she died,’ she said.