‘Intentional’ fall killed wife of diplomat

Published on 15/11/2012 02:17

THE daughter-in-law of former foreign secretary Lord Hurd plunged 60ft from her New York house two days before the family were due to return to the UK, an inquest has heard.

Catherine Hurd, 46, who was known as Sian, climbed a 
ladder, went through a hatch and stepped off the roof of the four-storey house in the fashionable Upper East Side of the city on 21 May last year.

Her body was found in the back garden of the house by her husband, British diplomat Thomas Hurd, who went looking for her when he woke and discovered she was not beside him.

She was pronounced dead in hospital and died from multiple blunt impact injuries.

Central Hampshire coroner Grahame Short told the hearing in Winchester yesterday the 
fall was “more than likely an 
intentional act” but he recorded an open verdict.

He said the mother-of-five, who took an overdose in 2007 after a nervous breakdown, was anxious and possibly depressed.