A retired insurance broker who drowned in her garden pond is thought to have tripped down some steps and fallen in a tragic accident, an inquest has heard.

Eighty-five-year-old Jean Rothwell’s body was found by her long-time friend and a carer who became concerned when she didn’t answer the door to her home on Carrick Road in Curzon Park.

An inquest into her death held at Chester Magistrates Court on Thursday (February 23) was told that she was a devoted wife to her husband Keith – who had moved into a care home due to ill health – but had struggled with memory loss in the final few years of her life.

John Hopkins, who met the couple through their mutual membership of Chester Golf Club, would regularly take Mrs Rothwell to visit Keith and kept a spare key for her.

He said he received a phone call from a social services care worker on the morning of September 21 last year as she thought it odd that Mrs Rothwell didn’t come to the door even though she could hear her two dogs were running around inside, as she would typically put them in cages if she was going out.

Together the carer and Mr Hopkins let themselves inside the house, which was stifling hot, and noticed that the back door was open.

They went outside and saw that Mrs Rothwell was lying face-down in the small pond towards the rear of the garden.

The pair rushed to pull her out but, sadly, Mrs Rothwell had already passed away.

Care worker Shirley Jones recalled visiting Mrs Rothwell on the day before her death, when they had a chat over a cup of tea and she seemed ‘happy’ enough.

Mr Hopkins told the inquest that his friend was ‘forgetful’ but physically fit and steady on her feet, and he didn’t spot any obvious tripping hazards around the pond.

Hazard

But Det Sgt Andrea Price noted two small steps down to the lawn, adjacent to where Mrs Rothwell fell in, so ‘falling down the steps is more likely than not’.

She added that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.

A post-mortem examination conducted on Mrs Rothwell found that she died from drowning with an element of hypothermia, and underlying dementia.

Assistant coroner for Cheshire Jean Harkin concluded that Mrs Rothwell died as a result of an accident.

“It is believed that Jean Rothwell went down to the pond area and fell down two steps to that pond,” Mrs Harkin said.

“That caused her to drown and hypothermia set in.

“This appears on balance to be an accidental death.”