A 96-year-old former school secretary died of natural causes after suffering a cardiac event in Shepton Mallet's Collett Park, an inquest has concluded.

Betty Margaret Bower, of Kyte Road, Shepton Mallet, died on January 25 2020 when she suffered a naturally-occurring cardiac event which would prove fatal, causing her to fall into Collett Park Pond where she was found by Parkrun organisers, who attempted to revive her.

Senior coroner for Somerset, Tony Williams, concluded the inquest today (May 6), and said the cause of the cardiac event was left ventricular hypertrophy, aortic valve stenosis and hypertension.

Betty had been suffering from dementia and had been known to take regular walks around Collett Park, which is close to her home.

However, she also had a cardiac history with high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease, and had previous episodes of collapse related to these.

On the morning in question, one of Betty's three carers, Lynn Catley, arrived at Betty's home to get her up, but found the property locked with the key on the outside.

After looking around the house, she found that Betty was not there and had not slept in her bed. It was at this point that she spoke to a neighbour, who had heard that someone had been found by the Shepton Mallet Parkrun organisers in Collett Park Pond.

The Parkrun team had performed CPR on Betty, as did the ambulance team taking her to hospital, but sadly she could not be revived and was pronounced dead at Yeovil District Hospital.

The police launched an investigation, through Detective Constable Victoria Edwards who, along with her commanding officer, concluded there were no suspicious circumstance surrounding the death.

At Yeovil District Hospital, Betty's body was examined by Dr Somasegaram, who suggested that she had been in the pond for some time due to the temperature of the body.

In the post mortem, the results were inconclusive as to whether Betty's death was a natural cause event, or the result of her drowning in the pond.

However, in conclusion, Mr Williams said that, taking all the evidence into account, he believed that Betty had fallen asleep in her chair that night, had woken up and gone for a walk in the park as she had often done.

During her walk, she had suffered a naturally-occurring, fatal cardiac event causing her to fall into the pond.