GRIEVING Warminster husband Robert Chetwynd told an inquest how he returned from work to find his wife dead in the garden of their home.

He had discovered a shotgun was missing from his gun cabinet and then he saw his wife with a gun beside her.

"I could not believe what I was seeing," Mr Chetwynd, who was so distressed he had to pause several times to recover while giving evidence, told assistant deputy Wiltshire coroner Nigel Brookes.

Heather Chetwynd, 52, of Bradley Road, Warminster, died in March from brain injury due to a shotgun wound, the inquest at Salisbury heard.

She was said to have suffered menopausal problems causing depression and mood swings.

Mr Chetwynd said his wife, who had earlier during their 32-year marriage been a lively, bubbly person, had never talked of taking her own life.

But she had once said she hated herself and would like to "disappear in a puff of smoke".

On another occasion she had said , it was like a fog which she could not get out of.

At the inquest on Thursday Mr Brookes said: "I do feel on the evidence she intended to take her own life, but did it at a time when she was depressed."

Verdict: Heather Chetwynd killed herself while she was depressed.