Coroner opens inquest into 'tragic circumstances' of couple found dead in their summerhouse
A coroner has opened an inquest into the "tragic circumstances" surrounding the deaths of an elderly couple who were found in their summerhouse in Shrewsbury earlier this month.
Assistant Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin coroner Heath Westerman sitting in Shirehall, Shrewsbury, heard how paramedics from West Midlands Ambulance Service and officers from West Mercia Police attended the home of Robert Terrance Lloyd, 84, and his wife Patricia, 80 in Newbrook Drive, Bayston Hill on June 1.
The coroner was told that Mr Lloyd, a retired police sergeant from Birmingham, and his wife of 50 years, Patricia Lloyd, a retired teaching assistant, were declared dead by paramedics after being found in a summer house in their garden at around 11pm.
In opening the inquest, Assistant Coroner Mr Westerman said: "Following the tragic circumstances of their death I add my sincere condolences to their family and friends."
Following the deaths of the married couple earlier this month, their daughter Sarah Davis paid tribute to her "most wonderful parents" who would be "greatly missed."
In a statement, she said: "Mum and dad were a loving, dedicated couple married for more than 50 years, and the most wonderful parents I could have asked for.
"They were both terminally ill, Dad with cancer and Mum with a brain tumour and dementia, and they couldn't bear the thought of one not being there to support the other," she had said.
Mr Westerman set a date for the inquest to be heard at Shrewsbury Coroner's Court on October 14.
