A HEARTBROKEN husband took his life in the same spot his wife did just a month earlier, an inquest heard.

Neil Steer, 73, could no longer live without Carrol, his wife of 51 years, and felt guilty because he believed he could have saved her.

Winchester Coroner’s Court heard that Mrs Steer, also 73, suffered from arthritis and high-blood pressure, and left a note stating her intentions.

Police discovered her hanged body at Golden Hill Woodland, off Hare Lane, Hordle, later that evening on May 22 and told Mr Steer the devastating news.

Her note to her family referred to her embarrassment over mixing up her medication, adding: “I am no good to you, I am spoiling your life. You are better off without me. Forget me.”

The inquest heard Mr Steer, of Blenheim Crescent in Hordle, found it hard to live without Mrs Steer.

PC Lawrence McKenna, one of the officers who found Mrs Steer, said: “He wished to see the place where his wife had died.

“He was obviously upset. He said that on the night she went missing he was in the area and heard a clinking sound and thought it was her. He had massive guilt about this.”

After Mr Steer was found dead by police officers at the same spot on June 23 – exactly a month after she died – a letter to his family was discovered.

The letter stated: “Since Carrol has gone I realise that my love for her was so consuming that I literally cannot function at any level.

“I cannot accept that I failed to understand or realise the problems that she had and I therefore failed the one person who meant everything to me. I can’t live with the possibility that when searching for her in the woods I failed to follow up a noise.

“Despite the support of family and friends I am weighed down with fear and dread.”

The letter later stated: “I must atone for whatever wrongs I did to Carrol.”

Assistant coroner Simon Burge recorded a verdict of suicide in both cases.