THE body of a missing woman went unnoticed for almost a year as it lay halfway up a cliff face.

It was found by chance at Beachy Head in January, ten months after she went missing from her Eastbourne home.

An inquest heard 75-year-old Flora Pope had wandered from her room at warden-assisted Queen Alexandra Cottage Homes, Seaside, a week after being discharged from hospital following an asthma attack.

Her grieving daughter Irene Phillipson, of Oaklands, Westham told the inquest in Eastbourne yesterday that she had no idea why her frail mother would had left.

She said: "The first I heard that she was missing was when the warden phoned to ask me if I knew where she might have gone."

Mrs Phillipson said she had no idea why her mother had gone to Beachy Head although she did remember her mother and late father had enjoyed visiting the popular beauty spot together.

She said: "She had been very depressed since my father died ten years ago, and she had made one attempt to commit suicide by cutting her wrists."

Members of a cliff rescue team recovered the body of the widow on January 18, 250ft up the cliff face, after coastguards stumbled across the remains while attending another incident.

Auxiliary coast guard and cliff rescue team member Robert Cooley said the body was fully clothed and a wedding ring was found nearby.

A post mortem found Mrs Pope had probably died from multiple fractures inflicted by the fall.

She was identified from dental records.

Coroner Alan Craze, recording an open verdict, said Mrs Pope's family had had to endure months of anguish.

He added: "I have no evidence at all that it was an accident, although it could have been. It could even have been that she decided to take her own life."

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