A WIDOW with a history of depression suffocated herself, an inquest heard.

Jane Baker’s brother, Andrew Scott, made the discovery after travelling to Iver from his home in Nottingham after she failed to respond to his phone calls.

In a statement, Mr Scott said Mrs Baker, of Mansion Lane, had been suffering from depression since the age of 15 and had been “in and out of hospital most of her life”.

After her husband Stephen died in July 2007 she “coped quite well with life” at first, but after Christmas the same year the 56-year-old was admitted to the Tyndall Centre in Aylesbury with depression.

The Amersham inquest heard Mrs Baker took an overdose of medication and paracetamol in July 2009.

Mr Scott said he would usually talk to Mrs Baker once a day, but when she did not respond to phone calls for four days he became concerned and drove to her house.

He let himself in with a spare key and found her body in the bedroom. She had suffocated herself using a scarf and parcel tape.

A post mortem gave the cause of her death as asphyxiation. Coroner Richard Hulett recorded a verdict that Mrs Baker took her own life.