AN Alzheimer's sufferer who sparked a massive police and family search died from natural causes, an inquest heard.
The family of Eleanor Isobel Birrell made an impassioned plea in June after the much-loved wife and mother disappeared from her Shelley home one night.
Mrs Birrell, 67, a retired senior care assistant, had suffered from the condition for five years.
But she had never gone missing before and enjoyed a good quality of life with husband Keith at the family home in Huddersfield Road.
In a statement read out at the Huddersfield inquest Mr Birrell said he had left his wife at home at about 6.30pm on Friday, June 16, for an evening with friends.
He had locked the front door and taken the key and locked the back door, but left the key in the lock in case of emergencies.
He had done this several times since his wife had developed the condition and she had never unlocked the door or gone outside the house until his return.
He said it was totally out of character for her to go anywhere unfamiliar to her or alone.
When he returned at about 9.30pm he found his wife was not in the house and the back door was unlocked.
He immediately phoned his daughter, who called the police.
Mrs Birrell was later caught on CCTV cameras in Aspley about 9.20pm that night.
But there were no more sightings.
Police and Holme Valley and Woodhead mountain rescue teams - along with her family, who put up posters in the area - carried out an extensive search.
The hunt ended when a 15-year-old boy discovered Mrs Birrell's decomposed body in thick undergrowth in an Almondbury wood on June 27.
He was late for school and ran up a steep stone path through Bank End Woods, between Almondbury Bank and Bank End Lane.
Kirklees Coroner Roger Whittaker said a post-mortem had revealed that Mrs Birrell died from acute cardiac failure due to coronary artery disease.
He recorded that she died from natural causes.
