Coroner: Nurse in Kate hoax, Jacintha Saldanha, was found hanging

LONDON A nurse who passed a hoax call into the hospital room of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge apparently killed herself three days later, with a coroner's officer saying Tuesday she was found hanging by the neck and a detective saying she left three notes.

Coroner's officer Lynda Martindill said nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her room by a colleague and a member of the security staff at London's King Edward VII Hospital last week.

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Police detective chief inspector James Harman said Saldanha also had injuries to her wrists. He told the coroner's inquest that three notes were found in the room. Police have said there were no suspicious circumstances, meaning nobody else was involved in Saldanha's death.

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Prince William visits Kate at the hospital

As well as examining the notes, he said police were interviewing her friends, family and colleagues and looking at emails and phone calls to establish what led to her death. The case is being treated as an apparent suicide.

Saldanha answered the phone last week when two Australian disc jockeys called to seek information about the former Kate Middleton, who was being treated for severe morning sickness. The DJs impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, and Saldanha was duped into transferring them to a nurse caring for the duchess.

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Australian DJs speak out on nurse's death

Australia's media watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, said on Thursday it was launching an official investigation into whether the radio station, 2DayFM, breached its broadcasting license conditions and the industry code of practice

Coroner Fiona Wilcox opened and adjourned the inquest until March 26.

[Delta-55]

Unfortunetly the DJ's are probably now walking in the same shoes she did. I wonder if they have thought of suicide? They may have been strong like the people who have have commented no understanding of why this woman did this, but I really wonder, are they strong now that they lost their jobs, became national idiots and thought it was all in the scope of their job?

[jefforsythe]

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[MilitaryRetiree]

Personally, I do NOT think that for a moment that a married mother of two, would hang herself because of such a prank. I think that she obviously had problems prior to this.

[joesapper]

Strangled is a horrible ugly death as any hanging that fails to result from a drop is more of a stranglization than anything else , a nurse could have overdosed rather than such an ugly result of the pain choking .

A Mom of two , and a great Soul of compassion and caring lost over foolishness . I wonder how her Husband is doing after such a tragic event ?

Some jokes are best not followed through .

[LKHatley]

Jacintha Saldanha became the butt of all jokes across the media thanks to these DJ's who took advantage of a situation where she was probably working round the clock, busy on her feet, working to make a living like the rest of us. She probably was thinking only of helping others rather than thinking that she was a target of a cruel joke. After the incident occured, she knew that she broke privacy laws and would lose her ability to work as a nurse in the future. There goes that income... Here come the marital problems due to lack of income. No one would have let go of this story. The media and people in general would have thought of her as being "stupid" for the rest of her life. No one wants to live like that. Who do you seek help from if the whole world thinks of you in this light? My heart goes out to her and her family.

[IPonUall2]

Really? 3 days later?
This is simple to resolve.
Anyone committing suicide over a prank call is CRAZY.
She obviously was already primed before the call.

[LKHatley]

I'd like to see your face splashed across the media, have people laugh at you, receive the "stupidest person of the year" award, lose your career that you worked so hard to attain, go through marital problems after you lose your job because you lost that income, have to reduce yourself to a lesser paying job, have your teenaged kids become the butt of the school because your friends think your Mom is less-than etc etc... Let's see how you deal with it. Remember, she's a nurse. She's seen and dealt with every medical case from patient to patient. To be a nurse takes a lot of heart. These DJ's broke her.

[UForgotPoland]

@ LKHatley

I haven't seen any info saying she was fired from her position. I agree with IPonUall2, it is stupid to kill yourself over something like this but there's too many missing elements of the story. Was she disciplined and how so? Was she insulted by the royals? Either life goes on and it's pretty stupid to kill yourself for such reasons especially if you have a family behind you. She had to have serious issues before this occurred.

[bluejacket2-2009]

The DJ's have lost their careers but in the end did nothing wrong... that nurse got duped but taking her own life was nuts.. The English monarchy isn't even real, it's for show and a waste of English money... she must have had some mental problems going in..

[LKHatley]

The DJ's have mental problems - thinking that they can prank call someone...and oops! Sorry that we made you lose your job. I would love for mental DJ's to do something like that to you when you're busy at work and have the world laugh at you. j/k LOL!

[Rick_Carter1]

It sounds like she tried to slit her wrists before she finally hanged herself. Are the planning to release the contents of those three suicide notes she left? They should shed some light on her motivations for killing herself. I really don't think anyone should judge her before they hear the contents of those notes. - RC

[thetruthwillout]

I still cannot believe that the two DJ's are being blamed for this woman's suicide. She CHOSE to take her own life. She had two children. What about them? I'm sorry, but the woman was very selfish. She didn't even give out any information; all she did was transfer the call; it was the nurse to whom the call was transferred to gave out the information. Is she still alive? Apparently, this woman had other problems.

Also, I agree with the poster who asked why the Brits are in the forefront of American news? We are no longer English subjects, people.

[credibility2]

It is very tragic that this woman was obviously tormented by many demons, which apparently her family either didn't recognize or ignored. It makes no sense for a normal person to commit suicide because of a prank. There was a lot more wrong with this nurse than is being revealed. The idiot pranksters may have been the tipping point, but I'm sure the nurse was being pushed over long before the prank and by others and circumstances. Perhaps her husband is also culpable and was abusive or neglectful? We'll never really know what caused a senseless, selfish and cowardly act as this suicide.