Inquest into death of Michael Bryn Jones due to start today

An inquest is due to start today into the death of a man found in woods 80 days after he went missing,

Michael Bryn Jones, 38, vanished from his Llandudno home on April 2 last year.

His body was discovered in woods near Bangor on June 21.

Police, rescue groups and his family had searched tirelessly for him.

At a pre-inquest hearing held in March at Caernarfon, North Wales assistant coroner Nicola Jones said she would try to get “as many people as possible” to piece together what happened during Mr Jones’ last hours.

The inquest is expected to last for three days.

Eileen Slinn, Mr Jones’s mother, told the previous hearing: “If things had been different, we would have been able to say goodbye and not see him in a coffin. If he had been found sooner, if things had been done sooner.

“It makes it harder to accept. We could not see him in the state he was. It’s just the fact that we couldn’t say goodbye. It means an awful lot.”

The court heard that on March 21 Mr Jones had been brought to the hospital after taking tablets.

He was assessed on March 23 by psychiatric nurses on Beuno ward in Ysbyty Gwynedd and seen again by a doctor on March 24.

Mystery remains over missing Llandudno man nearly two months after disappearance

On April 1, he walked into the sea off Llandudno and was driven by police to Ysbyty Gwynedd.

It is believed he may have then walked back home to Llandudno.

On April 2, he left Craig y Don on the last bus to Bangor and caught a taxi for Ysbyty Gwynedd, before leaving the hospital.

He was then not seen until his body was found.

At his funeral in June last year, his mum paid tribute to her beloved son, saying she would miss his “gentleness and kindness”.

She said: “He’d go out of his way to help anyone. Whenever I’d shop in Llandudno, people would come up to me and tell what a kind person he was.

“When I had heart failure, Michael nursed me for three years. He cooked for me, fed and bathed me – he was a lovely son.”