Olive Heaton

Olive Heaton was found dead at the foor of a cliff at Portreath in Cornwall on Thursday 2 June 1983.

Olive Heaton had lived in Lewis Road in Radford Semele.

She had been holidaying with her family in Falmouth. However, she took the family car and drove off alone to Portreath where she was thought to have walked along the cliffs before falling 150 feet to her death. 

The police said that foul play was not suspected. However, at the inquest an open verdict was returned after the Coroner said that it is impossible to say whether she was pushed, fell or jumped. 

Her body was found the following day in a small inlet.

She was said to have loved walking and to have been wearing jeans and a fisherman's sweater at the time. 

It weas heard that although the cliff walk was safe, that it was only a couple of paces away from the cliff edge. 

She had had two children, a 17-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

At her inquest, the Coroner said that he accpted that Olive Heaton had fallen over the cliff and that her death was due to multiple injuries, but added:

He further noted that the inquest had heard from one witnes that Olive Heaton had suffered from a mental problem, from another that the footpath was frightingly close to the cliff edge and from a third witness that Olive Heaton had been seen with a man on the cliff. 

Olive Heaton's husband said that he and his wife and their daughter had visited Falmouth with his sister-in-law for a holiday. He said that Olive Heaton had been very depressed from a mental problem for some months before but that she had been much better by the time of the hliday and that they had had a normal vacation.

He said that that had gone for a picnic on the cliff at Portreath one day and that  couple of days later, 2 June 1983, he and his daughter went into Falmouth and later across on the ferry to St Mawes, leaving Olive Heaton supposedly at home with his sister-in-law.  however, he said that when they returned there was no sign of Olive Heaton, and when his sister-in-law came home at 11pm, he found that she had not seen Olive Heaton all day. 

After she was reported missing, the police searched for her with a helicopter and found her body the following day at the foot of a cliff near Gullyn Rock, halfway between Portreath and Porttowan. 

The sister-in-law told the inquest that Olive Heaton had previously told her that she wanted a divorce, and had been quite animated, but noted that she hadn't appeared to be depressed or suicidal.

A doctor noted that Olive Heaton had been treated for a hypermanic state, which had made her very difficult at home, but that she had refused to go voluntarily into a hospital for treatment. The doctor added:

A police sergeant noted that Gullyn Roack was a very vigorous walk from either Portreath or Porthtowan and that few people walked that far. He said:

Another man from Norwich said that he had seen Olive Heaton walking along the clifftop, but that he also saw another man about 50 years old holding a dogs lead and saying that he was looking for his dog, and that when he shortly after looked back that he saw the man and Olive Heaton walking along together. 

The pathologist that carried out the post mortem examination said that Olive Heaton had suffered from mutlpe fractures and other wounds, but that he didn't think she had died instantly, and that there had been a delay. when he was asked whether he thought that Olive Heaton had been lying there alive for part of the night, he said that he did.