Men roped together died after leap from bridge, inquest told
TWO MEN found tied together on a beach had died after jumping from the Menai Bridge, an inquest has ruled.
The bodies of Richard Adam Hollis, 36, and Nathan Jordan Orritt, 18, were found on Dinas Llwyd beach, near Newborough in Anglesey, on February 9 this year.
Mr Hollis was missing the lower part of his right leg and his foot, which had been found two days earlier near Y Felinheli, in Gwynedd.
The men were from Preston and Blackpool respectively and had been in Wales for a matter of days.
In Mr Orritt’s pockets were a Conwy county library card and a phone.
He had registered an account with the county’s library service a week earlier, on February 2, and workers said he used Conwy library’s computer for around an hour and a half to search for jobs and places to rent in the area.
Police who tracked Mr Orritt’s phone found the pair had worked their way around the coast from Conwy, eventually ending up near the Menai Bridge.
The last call from the phone was made to 999 at 11.51pm on February 5, just nine minutes before Mr Hollis’ 37th birthday. The call lasted 52 seconds before the operator hung up due to nobody talking.
DC Matthew Corkish, of North Wales Police, and pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers agreed that the men died very shortly after this phone call.
Dr Rodgers said it was most likely that Mr Hollis lost his leg in the fall.
He said the men would have been pulled underwater and died “very quickly”.
Dewi Pritchard Jones, senior coroner for North West Wales, recorded the official cause of death as drowning at Dafydd Orwig council chamber in Caernarfon on Thursday.
He also concluded that the pair committed suicide on the balance of probabilities.
“Both men were fit and healthy and I can only conclude they climbed over the barrier,” said Mr Pritchard Jones.
“Because they were roped together, they fell together. They may have hit the bridge structure or may have hit one of the rocks at the bottom. The injuries are extremely compatible with a fall from a great height.
“Did they die as a result of their own actions? In my view, yes. I can’t think of any other explanation why someone would throw themselves off a bridge. The verdict recorded will be that each of the deceased did kill himself.”
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