Coroner apologises to family for being unable to solve death of Preston man, 31, because of decomposition

A coroner has apologised to relatives after admitting he is unable to solve the mystery of a 31-year-old man’s death.

Joshua Conlon’s body was found by a housing officer making his weekly visit the terraced property in Eversleigh Street, Preston.

But an inquest heard it was so badly decomposed that a pathologist had been unable to confirm precisely when or how he died.

Joshua’s family say they believe his death was the result of an accidental drugs overdose – he was a regular user of heroin and there were drugs paraphernalia in his room. He had also been trying to access professional help.

Yet Coroner Richard Taylor told them that, sadly, they will never know for sure.

"I’m sorry, but the difficulty I have is I don’t have appropriate details to be able to say to you with any certainty, or even a best guess, that this is the cause of death.”

The hearing was told that Preston-born Joshua had to be identified by his tattoos. He could have lain dead for up to eight days.

Police who attended the scene said they were satisfied there were no suspicious circumstances and the most likely cause of death was drug-related. They found items for drug use in the room including a number of drug wraps and also a crack pipe underneath the body.

The housing officer who found the body had last visited the house on January 27 and reported that Joshua was not there. He said he had last spoken to him two days earlier, but had found him unresponsive when he visited again on February 2.

The Coroner was told Joshua had been having problems with his mental health, suffering from depression, and had previously taken an overdose. But there was absolutely no way, he said, of saying definitely that drugs had caused his death.

He told the family: “I can’t pinpoint it as to whether (it was) from the 25th or just after that. The problem is we don’t know when it was or how he died.

“I know drug paraphernalia was present, but I can’t say if he had drugs in his system or not. He may well have done.”

The hearing was told a non-invasive CT scan post mortem at the Royal Preston Hospital could not find any physical reason for Joshua’s death.

When toxicology tests were called for doctors could not retrieve any samples because of the state of decomposition.

“We tried to take toxicology,” said Coroner Taylor. “But the longer one has passed away there is less to check and it was impossible for toxicology to be taken.

“The position I am left in is there is an inability to answer two of the questions I have to answer. The first is the date of his death. I can’t be certain because medical science hasn’t progressed to the level where I can pinpoint the date of his death.

“I also have difficulty saying how he came by his death. It is more likely than not to be unnatural, but I don’t have the evidence. I simply cannot say.

“I can only apologise to you (the family) for not being able to fill in those gaps.

“I have no accurate cause of death. So I will have to say cause of death is unascertained.”