Epileptic seizure may have killed woman who was found dead at Barnsley post office, inquest hears

But the exact cause of Deborah Neale's death remains uncertain, after a coroner recorded an open conclusion.

Ms Neale, a former post office clerk, aged 60, was found dead at Cudworth post office, where she lived with her son, on Friday, April 19.

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Her death was initially treated as unexplained by police, who arrested her 34-year-old son and her ex-partner, aged 57, on suspicion of murder after her body was found.

At an inquest into her death, held at Sheffield Coroner’s Court on Friday, April 24, DC Louise Little said the two men were arrested because both had been present when emergency services arrived at the scene.

She told the court officers had interviewed them, carried out door-to-door enquiries and checked CCTV footage, and ‘taking everything into account there’s no evidence to indicate any third party involvement or that she was in conflict with anyone’.

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Dr Charles Wilson, who carried out the post-mortem examination, told how Ms Neale had a history of asthma, the lung condition COPD, epilepsy and substance misuse.

He said there were a number of possible causes of death, including a complication from her epilepsy, the ‘high level’ of the opioid bupomorphene found in her blood or a combination of heart and lung disease, while the fact she had recently stopped taking diazepam may have been a factor.

He added that death by suffocation ‘can’t entirely be excluded’, after a number of small wounds which appeared to be healing were found on her neck and face.

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But he said it was impossible to say which was most likely so he recorded the cause of death as ‘unascertained’.

Ms Neale’s niece told the court her aunt had felt like she was going to have a seizure in the days before her death ‘because of her diazepam withdrawal’ and said ‘in my opinion that’s what contributed to it’.

Recording an open conclusion, assistant coroner Tanyka Rawden said: “I think it was a seizure but what we don’t know is how that seizure was brought on. I imagine it was a combination of everything.”