The husband of a mother-of-three was “involved” in his wife’s death, which was initially ruled a suicide in a shock verdict

A coroner has found that the death of a mother of three, whose death was initially ruled a suicide, was actually staged by her unfaithful husband, who incapacitated her before setting up the scene and lying to police.

Some 14 years after Helen Bird’s body was found in the garage of her home in Blackmans Bay, Tasmania, a coroner on Friday made the shocking discovery of her suspected suicide.

Mrs. Bird was found by her husband, Mark Bird, at approximately 11:30 a.m. on July 8, 2010.

In 2011, the coroner initially ruled her death a suicide, but found that no other person – including Mr Bird – contributed to her death.

Coroner Robert Webster, however, found this to be untrue, concluding that Bird had “incapacitated” the palliative care nurse, possibly by using toxic fumes.

Webster found Bird, then caused her death by strangulation and staged the scene to appear as a suicide by placing her phone, photo and letter on a nearby bench in the garage.

“There is no evidence that Ms. Bird mentioned or threatened suicide, nor is there any evidence that she had suicidal thoughts,” Webster said in his findings.

“There was therefore no reason why she should have experimented with ropes or other methods of harming herself and the experiment would have failed, leading to her death by accident or misadventure.”

Bird was never charged in connection with his wife’s death and “completely denies” claims he was involved.

In the published decision, Webster described Bird not only as a false witness but also as a “deceitful person.”

“The evidence shows that Mrs. Bird’s children were her life,” Webster said.

“She wouldn’t leave them, especially with someone (Mr. Bird) who couldn’t properly care for herself, let alone her children.”

The court was told Bird told police his wife did not drink much, but in an affidavit he said his wife had been drinking a lot of gin on the night of his death.

Webster said Bird also presented misrepresentations about the true state of his marriage, including allegations of physical abuse and the couple experiencing “significant” financial problems.

At the time of his wife’s death, Bird was having an affair with another woman.

Webster said Bird, who claimed to have found his wife after returning home from shopping, made a series of calls and text messages to his wife in the morning in a “contrived” attempt to provide an alibi.

“Mr. Bird was a much bigger person than Mrs. Bird,” he said.

“He was stockier than her and taller. So he was clearly stronger than her.

“There was evidence that Mr. Bird may have been verbally and physically aggressive, which included comments that he wanted to get rid of people he did not like, and that he was physically and verbally aggressive towards his family.”

Webster said he was satisfied “given the exclusion of all other hypotheses and evidence against Mr. Bird that he was involved” in his wife’s death.

He also focused on the police investigation into Ms Bird’s death, calling it “insufficient”.

“Police investigating should not accept what they have been told or what appears from the scene,” he said.

“Such a death should be treated as suspicious until an investigation proves otherwise.”

He expressed his condolences to Mrs Bird’s family and friends who felt her loss.