A Dublin woman whose body was discovered on the side of a mountain in Bosnia four months after she went missing while on a religious pilgrimage appeared depressed and upset before her disappearance, an inquest into her death heard yesterday.
Winifred (Winnie) Brady (59), Millbrook Avenue, Kilbarrack, was on a Marian pilgrimage to Medjugorje with a group of nine others when she disappeared on September 6th, 2006, Dublin County Coroner Court heard.
On January 7th, 2007, her husband, Stephen Brady, received a call from the Department of Foreign Affairs indicating that a body, thought to be that of his wife, had been discovered on the remote Apparition Hill by a local hunter.
The body later identified as those of Ms Brady.
One of the women who travelled with her on the pilgrimage, Margaret Fitzsimons, told the court the group had departed in the early hours of September 6th to climb Cross Mountain.
Ms Fitzsimons said she believed that Ms Brady, who had decided not to climb the mountain that morning, had possibly changed her mind and had taken a taxi to meet up with the group, but had gone to the wrong mountain and got lost.
Ms Brady's body discovered on Apparition hill and a taxi driver subsequently confirmed he had taken her to the mountain, the court heard.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis told the court that due to the decomposition process, he was unable to say what the cause of death was, although he said there was no evidence of trauma sustained.
Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty returned an open verdict.
"She may have gone to the mountain by taxi, but why she went there, we don't know," he told the court.
Ms Fitzsimons said Ms Brady was drinking quite heavily while she was on holiday and that she spoke to her about it because Ms Brady was on medication.
She said she was quite distant from the group and had told her she "didn't want to be here".
"I didn't understand why she didn't want to be there - she had been to Medjugorje two other times. There was also an argument, but I don't know what that was about," said Ms Fitzsimons.
She told the court that Ms Brady had "lost a son a few years ago and was very upset about it". On the night of September 5th, Ms Brady said she didn't want to climb the mountain and her legs were sore, but the following morning when Ms Fitzsimons went to see Ms Brady in her room she said she might go.
"I said to her to get dressed and to take a taxi. I said to her to follow us and we'd be at the end of the mountain," Ms Fitzsimons said.
Mr Brady told the court he believed his wife "must have got into her head to go up later".
Following the discovery of her body last January, a Bosnian coroner ruled out foul play in her death, but said it may never be possible to determine exactly what killed her.
After conducting a postmortem, the coroner said there was no sign of assault, but an exact time and cause of death could not be established. After the court hearing Mr Brady said he had been through the inquest and the results of the post-mortem already in Bosnia and was not expecting to hear anything different in court yesterday.