A MORFA Nefyn man who was found dead in his back yard died from hypothermia, an inquest heard.
Donald Geoffrey Stones, who lived on Lôn yr Eglwys in the Llyn village, was found by his close friend Margaret Woods on Thursday, 17 January after she became concerned of his whereabouts.
In a statement read out in the inquest in Caernarfon, Mrs Woods said the 87-year-old was a keen dog-walker and she would see him daily.
In the statement, she said: “I have known Donald for 22 years. We were good friends and I would describe him as very friendly, but also an extremely private man.
“He would walk the dogs every day in the morning and the last time I saw him was around 10am on Wednesday, 13 January with them when he said he was going to go home.
“The following day I was told by a friend that they had not seen Donald and it was strange he had not picked up his paper at nearly 9am.
“As I opened the back door into the yard I noticed there was blood on the wall and I saw Donald lying on the ground with one of his dogs lying beside him. He was wet through and due to my nursing background, I knew straight away that he had passed away.
“I believe he may have been hosing the dogs down after a walk and somehow fell and hit his head on his way back into the house.”
Pathologist Dr Mark Lord said that there was no major head injury and that the only cause of death recorded was hypothermia.
North West Wales senior coroner, Dewi Pritchard Jones, said he was happy to record the cause of death as hypothermia, but was disappointed to not be able to provide an explanation of what lead to Mr Stones’ death.
He said: “This was a very cold January winter night and if Mr Stones had been outside since the previous day hypothermia is something we would expect. Mr Stones appeared to be healthy, certainly not in bad shape for his age.
“The post-mortem reveals there were no underlying diseases and the only thing that could have killed him was hypothermia.
“I was hoping to provide an explanation of why he couldn’t assist himself, whether he fell whilst hosing the dogs down, or if he suffered a heart attack, but there is no medical evidence to suggest this happened.
“We don’t actually know what happened to him, all we know he was found lying in the rear yard after we believe he was cleaning mud off the dogs with a hose pipe, as it was found close by.”
The coroner recorded an open verdict.