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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Mother jumped off cliff in front of daughter, 8

A mother took her eight-year-old daughter to a cliff top, then jumped to her death in front of her, an inquest has heard.


Tansy Langton had written her family's contact details on a piece of paper and put them in her daughter's pocket. Then she fell more than 100ft to her death from a rock face on Dorset's Jurassic coast.

The inquest in Bournemouth heard her death occurred around 2pm on Jan 22 close to Anvil Point near Swanage.

Miss Langton, 50, had asked a ranger where the steepest cliffs were and was told that there was a vertical drop to the west. After choosing a location she left her daughter, Olivia, 30ft away before jumping.

Moments earlier Ivan Lissin, 22, who was climbing without a helmet, fell 30ft and banged his head before landing in the sea.

A bystander watching him being rescued by helicopter then saw Miss Langton shuffle forwards to the edge of the cliff before falling. Neither survived.

Her daughter was later found by Pc Mari Montgomery.

"I asked where she [Miss Langton] was. The little girl said she was 'just down there' and that she had gone to sit down because she had a headache," said Pc Montgomery.

A suicide note was found at her home.

Mr Lissin, a graduate in bio-chemistry, had been with Oxford University's rock climbing club on a climb 300 yards away. He died the following day from severe brain injuries.

Sheriff Payne, the coroner for Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset, recorded a verdict of misadventure in the case of Mr Lissin and suicide for Miss Langton.

Original here

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