A man found dead by kayakers beside the Murrumbidgee River might have been lying there undiscovered for nearly six months, an inquest has found.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker has published her findings on the 2017 death of 30-year-old Daniel James Clement.
The cause of Mr Clement's death remains "unascertained", but Ms Walker said it was likely the result of "misadventure".
Ms Walker's findings show that the Chapman man had a number of mental health challenges, and suffered a significant head injury in 2005 when he crashed his bicycle.
He was eventually diagnosed in 2010 with schizophrenia, which Ms Walker said had "plagued him for the remainder of his life".
"He suffered with psychotic delusions and hallucinations," the coroner said.
"Likely because of that experience, he became a user of illicit drugs including [LSD], cannabis and some bushland substances with certain hallucinogenic effects.
"He also binge drank alcohol on occasions, and he was a heavy smoker."
Ms Walker said Mr Clement appeared to have "found some relief in nature, as he frequently took off from home [to go] wandering around alone in the bush".
This "unusual behaviour" concerned the man's mother, who contacted police more than once to report him missing when she became concerned that he had been gone for a long time.
"Each time until the last occasion, he had always returned home," Ms Walker said.
"He was a very resourceful young man who could get by with very little."
The behaviour of Mr Clement, who was placed on a psychiatric treatment order in 2010, began to significantly deteriorate in 2016 when he spent time in jail for assaulting his mother.
He eventually went back to live with her in early 2017, and Ms Walker said "things seemed to settle for a couple of months".
But one night in late May 2017, Mr Clement began "apparently hallucinating" as he yelled at his sister despite her not being there.
When asked by his mother the next morning about a hole that had appeared in his bedroom wall, he told her: "Don't worry, I'm leaving now anyway." He then disappeared on May 31, 2017.
Mr Clement's mother did not report him missing until nearly four months later, and police were unable to find him.
His mother approved officers' plans to issue a media release in November 2017 with an image of Mr Clement, but it was never distributed because he was found soon after.
On November 11 that year, four kayakers on the Murrumbidgee River discovered Mr Clement's body on a large rock near the Bulgar Creek area.
"His body was face down with his head and arms underwater, his legs partially underwater, and his torso exposed," Ms Walker said.
"He had clearly been there for some time as algae had grown around his body."
The coroner said Mr Clement had been found wearing a leather jacket, a hooded jumper, a T-shirt, underpants, jeans with tracksuit pants over the top and hiking shoes.
"Having last been seen [at] the start of the Canberra winter, it is likely that his choice of clothing was a poor protector against the harshness of a Canberra winter spent outdoors," Ms Walker said.
Visual identification had not been feasible because Mr Clement's body had been "in very poor condition", but DNA tests confirmed it was him.
Professor Johan Duflou, in an autopsy report, noted the presence of several substances in Mr Clement's system, but was unable to ascertain the cause of death.
"Whilst the circumstances do not allow me to conclude what caused Daniel's death, reassuringly, there is no suggestion of third-party intervention or foul play," Ms Walker said.
"There is also no evidence of a natural disease process having reached a stage which would have caused Daniel's death, nor can I conclude that any substance use was responsible."
Ms Walker ultimately found that Mr Clement had died at some point between May 31 and November 11, 2017, and that no issue of public safety had arisen from his death.
