Bombshell ruling on woman’s ‘suicide’

A woman whose death was initially deemed a suicide was actually staged by her unfaithful husband, who incapacitated her before setting up the scene and lying to police, a coroner has found.

Some 14 years after Helen Bird was found dead in the garage of her Blackmans Bay home in Tasmania a coroner delivered the bombshell finding into her suspected suicide on Friday.

Ms Bird was found by her husband, Mark Bird, about 11.30am on July 8, 2010.

Her death was initially ruled as a suicide by a coroner in 2011, who found no other person – including Mr Bird – contributed to her death.

But Coroner Robert Webster said this was not true, ruling Mr Bird had “incapacitated” the palliative care nurse by likely using toxic fumes.

Mr Webster found Mr Bird then caused her death by asphyxiation and staged the scene to look like a suicide by placing her phone, a photograph and a letter on a nearby bench in the garage.

“There is no evidence Ms Bird had mentioned or threatened suicide, and there is no evidence of suicidal ideation,” Mr Webster said in his findings.

“There was therefore no reason for her to be experimenting with ropes or other methods of harming herself and that experiment going wrong thereby leading to her death by accident or misadventure.”

Mr Bird has never been charged over his wife’s death and “absolutely rejects” the assertion he was involved.

In his published decision, Mr Webster described Mr Bird not only as an untruthful witness, but an “untruthful person”.

“The evidence establishes Mrs Bird’s children were her life,” Mr Webster said.

“She would not have left them behind particularly with someone (Mr Bird) who was incapable of properly looking after himself, let alone his children.”

The court was told Mr Bird had told police his wife was not a heavy drinker, but in an affidavit said his wife had been heavily drinking gin on the night of her death.

Mr Webster found Mr Bird had also given false impressions on the true state of his marriage, including allegations of physical violence and the pair experiencing “significant” financial stress.

At the time of his wife’s death, Mr Bird was having an affair with another woman.

Mr Bird – who claimed he found his wife after coming home from a shopping trip – made a series of calls and texts to his wife in the morning in a “contrived” attempt to provide an alibi, Mr Webster said.

“Mr Bird was a much larger person than Ms Bird,” he said.

“He was more stockily built than her and he was taller. He was therefore clearly stronger than her.

“There is evidence Mr Bird could be verbally and physically aggressive, which included comments that he wished to dispose of people he did not like, and he felt physical and verbal aggression towards his family.”

Mr Webster said he was satisfied “given the exclusion of all other hypotheses, and the evidence against Mr Bird, that he was involved” in his wife’s death.

He also took aim at the police investigation into Ms Bird’s death, calling it “inadequate”.

“Investigating police should not accept what they are told or what appears, from the scene,” he said.

“Such a death should be treated as a suspicious death until investigations conclusively establish otherwise.”

He offered his condolences to Ms Bird’s family and friends who had felt her loss.