A DEPRESSED woman who was found dead at a health resort committed suicide, an inquest heard. Jeanette Barrow, formerly of Orient Close, St Albans, was discovered by a housekeeper on the morning of February 6 in a hotel room at the Champneys Health Resort

A DEPRESSED woman who was found dead at a health resort committed suicide, an inquest heard.

Jeanette Barrow, formerly of Orient Close, St Albans, was discovered by a housekeeper on the morning of February 6 in a hotel room at the Champneys Health Resort in Henlow, which she had checked into the day before.

An ambulance crew attempted to resuscitate the 44-year-old at the scene and she was transferred to Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where she died later that day.

A plastic cup containing tablets, a quantity of unidentified brown liquid and empty bottles of vodka and Bailey's liqueur were found in the room. Ms Barrow also left a note behind which confirmed her identity, next of kin, her psychiatrist and the name of someone who could look after her cats.

Ms Barrow, who was last seen at dinner in the Champneys restaurant the night before, suffered from depression and in a witness statement read out at the inquest, her psychiatrist Dr Frances Burnett said that her patient often felt "lonely and helpless."

Ms Barrow, who lived alone, tried to commit suicide in 2006 and again in the summer of 2007 when she checked into Sopwell House in St Albans but following the failed attempts she was referred to an NHS community support team and was due to meet her specialist counsellor on February 8 to discuss her issues.

But Ms Barrow rang ahead to cancel the meeting and said on the answer phone message that she expected the doctors to "know the reason why" she would not be there. Attempts were made to locate Ms Barrow and her family members - including a brother whom she was quite close to - but to no avail.

A postmortem revealed a high level of alcohol - 240mg of alcohol per 100ml blood - and a large quantity of the drug Propranolol in Ms Barrow's bloodstream which was the likely cause of the acute circulatory failure that she died from.

Dr Burnett said Ms Barrow had expressed regret at the failure of her suicide attempt in 2007 and Hertfordshire Coroner Edward Thomas, who recorded a verdict of suicide, said that it had been clear that Ms Barrow intended to take her life.

He added: "Everything I have read about Ms Barrow suggests that she was a lovely person. It is a great sadness that she felt the need to take her own life.