A talented young Slaithwaite artist hanged himself ‘out of the blue’, an inquest has heard.
And 20-year-old Tyler Wilkins recorded a heartbreaking video message on his phone for those who found him shortly before he took his life at lunchtime on March 24 by the River Colne in West Slaithwaite.
It and several letters later found at his home in Stuart Grove, where he lived with his dad and his stepmum, stating that he felt ‘useless’, were the only indication that he had been suffering from depressive thoughts.
A recent graduate from Huddersfield New College, where he studied art and design, he was planning to go on a gap year with his girlfriend, Sarah Turner, but had been unable to find work.
His dad, David, who last saw him the night before when heading out to a party, said: “I just didn’t think there was anything wrong with him and he’d given no indication that he wanted to take his own life or was depressed.
“He had got upset over his girlfriend but that was just regular couple issues and I thought that the only thing preoccupying him that last weekend was worry when his step mum went missing for a short while.
“I loved him with all my heart.”
But in the video message found by PC Kirsty Wright, who attended the scene after being alerted that a person was hanging by the river, Tyler seemed ‘determined’ to end his own life, the hearing was told.
And his mum, Samantha Wedge, said that she had been concerned by his behaviour whilst he was growing up, even taking him to a GP 12 years ago, who said that nothing was wrong with him.
She said: “He was a handful and at one point I was given medication to help him sleep.
“He was fascinated with death as a child and would look for the sharpest knife in the drawer.
“We’d had a bust-up the week before he died but we always made up.
“His death was a total shock and I’ve been devastated by it.
“We are all struggling to come to terms with it, especially his brother and sister.
“He was a loving son and we all miss him terribly.”
Coroner Oliver Langstaff recorded a verdict of death by hanging and said he intentionally took his own life.
He said: “It came from completely out of the blue.
“Sometimes when people take their own lives it’s sometimes an instinctive decision, it’s not always because they’ve been building up to it but from the evidence it is clear that he knew the consequence of his actions.”
