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City high-flyer planned his death
A year to plan
A high-flying city executive from Heath and Reach spent more than a year planning his death, it was revealed this week.
Consultant David Carr drew up carefully prepared instructions and bequests on artistically singed parchments. He left a note for the local firearms officer telling him where his cache of weapons were stored, thoughtfully warning the officer to mind his head on the stairs of his Leighton Road cottage.
And, when the day came, three weeks after the suicide clause on his life insurance policies expired, Mr Carr dressed in his best pinstripe suit, quaffed champagne and strawberries, and put a shotgun to his head.
An inquest into his death on Tuesday heard that the divorcee had been forced to abandon his original plan to kill himself in 2008 after discovering his recently taken out insurance policies, which would pay out a "substantial sum," carried a clause refusing to pay on suicide if it happened within the first 12 months.
Beds coroner David Morris said Mr Carr, who had an office in London overlooking The Thames, had left "a wealth" of letters, diaries and documents to friends and relatives, that charted how he planned to kill himself.
On September 16 last year his brother contacted the police because he was concerned for Mr Carr's welfare. A young Leighton police community support officer, Scott Burgess, was dispatched to Mr Carr's home.
He found the body "and a fair amount of blood" on the patio in the courtyard. It was face down, a shotgun under the body with two spent cartridges nearby.
There was a glass of champagne and a bowl of strawberries nearby and plastic sheeting erected to minimise the damage to the kitchen caused by the gun blast.
Dunstable Coroner's Court heard that Mr Carr had married on Christmas Eve 2001 and divorced seven years later. His estranged wife, Loretta, told the inquest that her husband's behaviour had changed after they had married.
She said suicide was "often on his mind, half in a joking way" and that he was "an unusual character".
On the day that he died she had received a large envelope stuffed with letters from Mr Carr that had been expertly singed around the edges to make them appear more impressive.
In recording a verdict that the procurement consultant killed himself the coroner said Mr Carr hadn't been suffering from any mental or medical illness.
He said: "This man was very strict in his business approach (to suicide) to the extent that he wrote to the firearms officer. He enclosed the keys to his gun cabinet and a warning to mind the low ceiling on the stairs.
He added: "It was clear that he was determined to take his own life but for no obvious reason. He had no problems, no psychiatric illness and wasn't depressed.
"He had unusual habits and proclivities but they didn't do anyone any harm.
"He made a decision, which was well documented, that he would take his own life and he did, writing to his ex-wife in advance. It is a very unusual case."
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
