A MAN whose skeletal remains were discovered near a Beaconsfield petrol station almost seven months after disappearing from a care home probably died from sniffing petrol, an inquest heard.

The gruesome remains of David Walters were found in woodland by the BP garage in Wycombe End on February 9, a two day inquest heard this week.

The grim find was made by garage workers almost seven months after the High Wycombe man had disappeared from the Comfort Care supported housing scheme in Slough on his 38th birthday on July 29, 2011.

Beaconsfield Coroner’s Court heard how Mr Walters was a paranoid schizophrenic whose condition was exacerbated by solvent abuse.

He had a long history of mental illness dating back to the 1990s, heightened by drug and solvent abuse which resulted in him becoming psychotic and having numerous run-ins with police, the inquest was told.

Mr Walters’ craving for solvents – particularly petrol – saw him regularly abscond from mental health wards and centres over a couple of decades.

He was reported missing at 1pm on July 29, 2011 by Ali Raza, service manager of the Comfort Care home where Mr Walters was being eased into life as part of a planned switch from The Tindal Centre, Aylesbury.

Mr Raza said Mr Walters, who had been “in good spirits”, left the house without telling staff sometime after 10am. They waited three hours before raising the alarm as Mr Walters had “always returned home” in the past.

It sparked a police search and an appeal by the media, which resulted in a number of alleged sightings across the region over a four month period – but only three are believed to have been of any note.

The last known photo of Mr Walters was a CCTV image of him buying lighter fluid from a Londis store in Farnham Common just days after his disappearance – but he was never found alive.

Pathologist Nicholas Hunt was unable to ascertain a cause of death due to the condition of the body but said there was no suggestion of any trauma.

Recording an open verdict, the Buckinghamshire Coroner Richard Hulett said he believed, based on Mr Walters’ history and the way in which his remains were found, that he died suddenly after abusing petrol.

He said Mr Walters had been caught in a “vicious cycle” of mental illness, followed by a period of time in a mental health establishment, often as a result of being sectioned, before a spell of recovery.

Mr Hulett said: “He would then either abscond or leave lawfully, and then return to this pattern of abusing substances, getting in to a problem somewhere and then he’s brought back in. It’s rather depressing.

“We’ve heard that he walked a significant distance and was probably sleeping rough. On this occasion he was probably caught out by what he was abusing and probably died there and then.”

The coroner added that he felt the attempt to change Mr Walters’ life by gradually moving him to Comfort Care ‘represented a better chance’ of integrating him back into society.

He added: “The prospects of it going wrong were high – he absconded, but he absconded from everywhere else... Short of locking him up 24/7, it wouldn’t stop him from absconding.”