Woman found dead near river in Witney died by suicide

Barbara Rooney, 33, had travelled to the Witney area from her home in Plymouth to attend the funeral of a relative when she was reported missing, and later discovered dead in Witney.

At an inquest at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Monday (October 21), statements from the coroner’s office, police, a friend and a relative of the deceased were read out.

The inquest heard that Mrs Rooney came to the area on May 22 with her parents and was staying with a family friend.

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Bridget Murphy, who Mrs Rooney was staying with for the weekend, said she was close with her family, but not the deceased herself, but had 'heard descriptions of Barbara as a bubbly and happy person'.

They were attending the funeral of Mrs Rooney's husband’s cousin, who had died by suicide three weeks earlier.

After the service Mrs Rooney disappeared and a missing person’s report was filed by her sister.

Her body was discovered near the River Windrush in Witney by a volunteer group assisting the police with the search on May 24.

Police sent a special unit to recover the body and identified the deceased as Mrs Rooney using photographic comparison to the missing person report.

It was heard at the inquest that Mrs Rooney had struggled with mental health problems since she was a teenager, and had been in contact with the NHS service ‘Live Well’.

A post-mortem examination revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in her system and there was no third-party interference.

Bridget McCann, Mrs Rooney’s aunt, said in a statement that her niece “was a happy person”.

The area coroner, Mr Nicholas Graham, concluded that Mrs Rooney died by hanging.

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