Hearing in case of 3-year-old boy’s death postponed in Britain — The Guardian

In Brantham, Suffolk, in the United Kingdom, an inquest into the death of three-year-old Noah Woods heard that the boy left a playground through a gap in a fence and walked towards a pond. His body was found in the water the following day, The Guardian reports.

Disappearance from the playground

According to Suffolk Police, on 15 September Noah Woods from East Bergholt was at a playground for children under five on Merriem Close with a relative. CCTV captured the boy with the relative at 14:13, and he was last seen at the playground at 14:37.

Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Connick said the cameras were motion-activated and did not record continuously. According to him, Noah went through a gap in the fence into a memorial garden and then left through an open gate.

The boy headed towards the local Decoy Pond. The relative followed, trying to catch up with him and calling out to the child, but Noah disappeared from view after approximately 200 metres. Police were then called and a major search began, involving around 1,300 people.

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Hearing postponed

On the afternoon of 16 September, a London police diver found the boy’s body about five metres from the shore, among the roots of submerged trees. The water was approximately 1.8 metres deep at that location.

Suffolk Police said it does not consider the child’s death suspicious. Following a post-mortem examination at Addenbrooke’s Hospital mortuary in Cambridge, the medical cause of death was recorded as awaiting further determination.

The coroner’s hearing in Ipswich lasted six minutes. Suffolk’s assistant coroner, Jyoti Gill, expressed condolences to Noah Woods’s family and loved ones and adjourned the case to a date to be set later.