Parents’ ashes found with bodies of twins

A RECLUSIVE pair of twins who fell more than 200ft over a cliff to their deaths were carrying the ashes of their dead parents in rucksacks, a coroner was told.

Muriel and Bernard Burgess, 59, had sought counselling as they struggled to come to terms with the death of their parents and especially their mother, who died in 2014.

The bodies of the twins, originally from North Wales, were found at the foot of the White Cliffs of Dover on New Year’s Day.

The siblings fell more than 200ft in an area known as Langdon Cliffs in Dover, Kent, and were found by rescue teams searching for Gulf War veteran Scott Enion, 45, whose body was also recovered.

One rucksack recovered near the twins contained ashes with their mother’s name and it emerged a second rucksack had their father’s ashes inside.

An inquest in Maidstone, Kent, into all three deaths heard Mr and Miss Burgess were recluses who lived together in a static caravan and were single and had no children.

Senior coroner Patricia Harding said that in September last year the Burgess twins attended a consultation with their GP amid reports of having “low mood” since their mother’s death.

Both were unemployed, struggled financially and sold the family home in North Wales to buy a caravan together at Orchard Park in the village of Elton, Cheshire.

On Christmas Day police were called to the pair on the Dover clifftop after Mr Burgess was spotted by a concerned passerby sheltering by a large rock.

Miss Burgess told police they had travelled to Dover to do some walking over the Christmas period and the officer reported no concern for them.

Mrs Harding said she could not be sure they intended to take their own lives.

Recording an open conclusion for both Mr and Miss Burgess, Mrs Harding said: “They were struggling to come to terms with the death of their parents, particularly the death of their mother in 2014.

Mrs Harding said: “The evidence doesn’t disclose to the required standard of proof whether there was an intention by them to take their own lives or was indeed simply a tragic accident.”

In the case of Mr Enion, of Waltham Gardens, Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, Mrs Harding recorded a conclusion of suicide after hearing that CCTV footage captured a figure jumping from the cliffs.

No relatives for either Mr Enion or the Burgess twins attended the inquest.