A healthcare assistant who worked through the coronavirus pandemic at Wythenshawe Hospital tragically took her own life at a Premier Inn after a struggle with depression.
Julie Howarth, 42, was reported missing from home by her family on March 29 after she called her mum to apologise and say goodbye, prompting her to call friends to ask if they'd heard from her. An inquest into Miss Howarth's death heard that her family desperately called around to find out more information about where the popular hospital worker had last been seen, and details about the car she was driving whilst hers was being repaired to help police locate her.
Sadly, the mum-of-two wasn't found until four hours later, when PCs Seymour and Brewster spotted the car in the Premier Inn car park and went into the hotel. They found Miss Howarth unresponsive, and despite their best efforts, were unable to resuscitate her. The hearing at Manchester South Coroner's Court heard that Miss Howarth had been struggling with depression, being signed off work and prescribed anti-depressants after speaking with her GP in early March this year.
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After three weeks off work, she went to visit her mum for lunch on March 29, and had seemed like she had "turned a corner", discussing a return to work and showing off her new eyelashes and freshly painted nails to her mum. She left her mum's flat after lunch, and Mrs Howarth didn't hear from her daughter until later that afternoon, when she text her mum to ask if she could pick up her son from school. She told the court the text was unusual for her daughter, as she usually used emojis in her texts and wasn't normally so direct.
It was the first indication that something was wrong, and her mum attempted to call her three times before the hospital worker picked up the phone "hysterical", repeatedly apologising and saying goodbye. Her mum immediately called other family members and friends to try and track down Miss Howarth, with aunts heading over to her home on Baycroft Grove, Northern Moor, where they discovered a series of six notes, addressed to members of her family.
One of Miss Howarth's friends was able to call her at around 4.10pm, attempting to talk to her friend for a minute before Miss Howarth ended the call and turned her phone off. Miss Howarth was then reported missing to police by 4.30pm, after all the details about her car and possible locations had been gathered, and she was classified as a high risk missing person. Officers were able to track her phone's location to the Magnolia Court area, and focused their searches around Sale Waterpark, local parks, and the River Irwell, due to Miss Howarth attempting to take her own life at Sale Waterpark in 2019.
However, it wasn't until around 7.45pm that evening when two police officers in the area spotted the car in the Premier Inn car park on Carrington Lane that police were able to locate Miss Howarth. DI Lee Barrow told the court that Miss Howarth had checked into the hotel at around 2.30pm, and was "visibly distressed" according to staff at the hotel and CCTV clips. Police coroner's officer David Wood stated that Miss Howarth paid for the room in cash, and a digital examination of her phone showed no evidence that she'd planned to head to the Premier Inn, or had told anyone where she was going.
DC Kelly-Ann Featherstone, giving evidence about the professional standard's branch investigation into GMP's involvement, told the court there had been a slight delay in tracing Miss Howarth's phone, as authorisation to trace someone's phone needs to be given by the Superintendent on duty, but no mobile number had been put on the system for the on-call superintendent for that day. However, she stated that this was a minor delay and was not an area of concern that had contributed to Miss Howarth's death. The issue has also been fixed with no further incidents since.
Senior coroner Alison Mutch returned a conclusion of suicide, stating that Miss Howarth died as a result of hanging. She said it was clear the Wythenshawe-born mum, who had worked for the NHS for more than a decade, was "much loved" by her family members, and had the full support of her mum, friends, and other family members.
Ms Mutch said: "She clearly was a lovely person, a lovely mum, a lovely daughter, a lovely sister, unfortunately what's clear is although she'd been to see the doctor about her depression, she'd given the impression things were going in the right direction. She just didn't let on about what was going through her mind that day.
"If she'd said to you 'mum I'm really struggling; you'd have had her at the doctors in the drop of a hat. We don't know why she didn't mention it, she knew how much you cared, all we can say is she didn't want to tell anyone how she was feeling. I very much hope none of you as a family blame yourselves, what's striking is the amount of support she got from you and the rest of the family."
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