Heart the killer at bloody scene
When Rotorua man Ian Walter White’s bloody and bruised body was found, police treated his death as suspicious,
But at an inquest into White’s death, which occurred on May 3 last year, Coroner Gordon Matenga found he died from a heart condition.
He heard evidence into White’s death at an inquest in Rotorua last month but reserved his decision and suppressed all details.
That restriction was lifted yesterday when Matenga released his findings into the 58-year-old’s death at his home in Peace St.
The coroner described White as “a man trapped in the clutches of substance addiction”, noting alcohol must have played a contributing factor in the Rotorua man’s death.
“However, I am satisfied no other person caused the injuries to Mr White or was responsible for his death.”
With White’s history of drinking at least a bottle of spirits a day, such an amount wouldn’t have contributed to his death, Matenga said.
Evidence was given of 17 empty vodka bottles found in White’s blood-drenched home.
When his body was discovered in his bed he had a black eye, bruises and there was a large cut to his head. There was blood on floors, walls and on a towel in the bathroom which appeared to have been used in an attempt to mop up at least some of the blood and stem the flow.
The court heard White had received a large inheritance from his mother but had rapidly spent much of it.
He had been helped by a woman who the coroner heard took advantage of his generosity and alcoholism.
That woman, Claudia McDonald, admitted at the inquest that she took thousands of dollars from White and he had bought her a Jaguar only days before his death. She sold it to cover debts.
Tania White claimed alcoholism and his inheritance killed her former husband.
The coroner’s formal finding was that White’s death was due to ischemic heart disease, coupled with multiple blunt force injuries in a background of alcohol intoxication.