Jazmine Howarth, 25, (left)Dionne Corbett, 25, (right)
A grieving
bride-to-be hanged herself after believing she could go 'half way' to
heaven to say a last good bye to her dead best friend, an inquest has
heard. Jazmine
Howarth, 25, from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester,
claimed she could
'control' death and meet up with her friend, mother-of-one Dionne
Corbett, before returning 'to the land of the living'.
But
24 hours after visiting Ms Corbett's body in a chapel of rest, Ms
Howarth was found dead in a community garden near her home by her
fiance.
An inquest at Rochdale Coroner's Court was
told Ms Howarth had written a number of letters saying she wanted to
meet Ms Corbett, also 25, 'for one last time' before coming back so she
could 'carry on with her life'.
She
died on March 11, two weeks after call centre worker Ms Corbett hanged
herself at her home in Bolton on February 26 following a battle with
depression.
Ms
Corbett and Ms Howarth had been best friends since they were toddlers
and even talked about getting pregnant at the same time so they could
'go through it all together', the inquest was told.
Following
Ms Corbett's death, a devastated Ms Howarth agreed to speak at the
funeral and went with her mother to see her body at the chapel of rest.
The hearing was told there had been no signs that Ms Howarth was intending to take her own life.
'We actually thought that she was much more settled than she had been in a long time,' said her aunt, Michelle Howarth.
'Obviously
when her friend Dionne died she was absolutely devastated and the day
before Jazmine took her own life she went to say goodbye to Dionne in
the chapel with her mum. But there was no indication to her mum that she
was thinking of joining her.
'The
letter to her mum indicated that what ever she intended to do she
thought she could control it. She was very much planning for the
funeral, she was looking at reading, planning for that. I know nobody
ever expects it but we weren't - it wasn't even on our radar.'
Ms
Howarth's fiance Brendan Cawley told the inquest: 'They classed each
other as sisters, one wouldn't do without the other. She broke down
crying saying, "yeh but I promised I would go and get her".
'She
said that she wanted to go and see her, go halfway to make sure she was
alright. Two days before she died I woke up in the middle of the night
and looked at Jazmine, she was writing on a piece of paper, I said "what
are you doing". She said "nothing it's stupid". I thought in my head
that it must be something to do with Dionne.'
He said at
the time of the incident a TV signal had been tuning in and out, adding:
'Jazmine said "I'm writing the words down because it could be Dionne
telling me something".'
On
the day of Ms Howarth's death, Mr Cawley said they had argued and his
fiancee had ran away from the house, locking the door behind her.
He then went looking for her, and discovered her body.
'I think she kind of expected me to save her,' Mr Cawley said.
Recording
a conclusion of death by misadventure, coroner Lisa Hashmi said she was
not satisfied that Ms Howarth had intended to kill herself.
She
said: 'I have no doubt that the loss of her close and very dear friend
in very tragic circumstances would have had a profound effect. She
attended the chapel of rest to say her goodbyes. I believe she would
have found that cathartic.
'They
had been of course very close, described as sisterly. Both had had
conversations about what the other would do if one lost another, it may
have underpinned her actions, but I could not say for sure what bearing,
if any it had.'
'What
I can't ignore are the letters, whilst it may be that some of them were
drafted in the days before her death, described as a superstitious
belief in Jazmine's mind, a number of letters were found that suggested
that Jazmine wanted to speak to Dionne for one last time.
'That
she believed she could meet Dionne and return to the land of living..
What I believe was a failure to appreciate how quick one could die. She
had a mistaken belief that she could just pass beyond and return. Quite
clearly that was a mistake on her part. It's probably the naivety of
youth that resulted in her sad, tragic and untimely death.'- Daily Mail
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