Deceased
Jeanne Christine D'Arcy
Demographics
75y, female
Coroner
Acting State Coroner Linton
Date of death
2022-04-13
Finding date
2025-06-20
Cause of death
Drowning (presumed; insufficient evidence to establish with certainty)
AI-generated summary
Jeanne D'Arcy, 75, disappeared from Cottesloe Beach on 13 April 2022 and is presumed deceased. She had been staying at a hotel after a distressing day involving a legal appointment about property disputes with her ex-husband. Throughout the afternoon and evening, she made multiple calls to family and friends whilst appearing intoxicated, having mixed alcohol with her regular Valium medication. CCTV footage showed her leaving the hotel at 11:09 pm walking unsteadily towards the beach. Her shoes, water bottle, and room key were found carefully placed on the beach the next morning. Multiple contacts reported she had previously expressed fantasies about swimming into the ocean to end her life. The coroner concluded she died by drowning but could not establish definitive cause. Clinical lessons include recognising acute psychological distress in vulnerable patients on benzodiazepines, assessing suicide risk when patients mix alcohol with sedating medications, and ensuring appropriate mental health follow-up after distressing life events.
AI-generated summary — refer to original finding for legal purposes. Report an inaccuracy.
Drugs involved
[2025] WACOR 29 JURISDICTION : CORONER'S COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA ACT : CORONERS ACT 1996 CORONER : SARAH HELEN LINTON, ACTING STATE CORONER HEARD : 10 JUNE 2025 DELIVERED : 20 JUNE 2025 FILE NO/S : CORC 3295 of 2024
DECEASED : D'ARCY, JEANNE CHRISTINE Catchwords: Nil Legislation: Nil Counsel Appearing: Senior Constable C Robertson assisted the Acting State Coroner.
[2025] WACOR 29 Coroners Act 1996 (Section 26(1))
RECORD OF INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH I, Sarah Helen Linton, Acting State Coroner, having investigated the disappearance of Jeanne Christine D’ARCY with an inquest held at the Perth Coroner’s Court, Court 85, CLC Building, 501 Hay Street, Perth on 10 June 2025, find that the death of Jeanne Christine D’ARCY has been established beyond all reasonable doubt and that the identity of the deceased person was Jeanne Christine D’ARCY and that death occurred on or about 13 April 2022 in the waters of the Indian Ocean off Cottesloe Beach, Cottesloe, as a result of an unknown cause in the following circumstances:
Jeanne D’Arcy1 (Jeanne) was last confirmed to be alive just after 11.00 pm on Wednesday, 13 April 2022. Jeanne was staying at the Ocean Beach Hotel (OBH) in Cottesloe and she was recorded at that time on the hotel’s CCTV footage leaving the hotel. She was last seen walking across Marine Parade and heading in the direction of a footpath that leads to the northern end of Cottesloe Beach. Jeanne has not been seen since that night and she has not made contact with family or friends.2
Jeanne was reported missing to police by her family the following afternoon, being 14 April 2022. A police investigation commenced, including an extensive land and sea search in the area where Jeanne was last seen, but no sign of Jeanne was ever found. A report was later prepared by officers from the WA Police Missing Persons Unit for the State Coroner in relation to Jeanne’s disappearance, on the basis she is believed to be deceased.3
Having considered the information provided by the WA Police in relation to Jeanne’s disappearance, I determined that pursuant to s 23 of the Coroners Act 1996 (WA), there was reasonable cause to suspect that Jeanne died on or about 13 April 2022 and her death was a reportable death. I therefore made a direction that a coroner hold an inquest into the circumstances of the suspected death.4
I held an inquest at the Perth Coroner’s Court on 10 June 2025. The inquest consisted of the tendering of documentary evidence compiled during the police investigation conducted into Jeanne’s disappearance, as well as hearing evidence from Detective Senior Constable Ellie Wold from the Missing Person Team, Homicide Squad and Sergeant Paul Crawshaw from the Water Police.
Jeanne was born Jeanne Christine Abbott on 4 October 1946. She was the oldest of three sisters and lived with her parents, Gweneth and Frederick Abbot, and siblings in Perth. There were reportedly issues with alcoholism in her family history, which impacted on Jeanne’s early years.5
Growing up in the 1960’s, Jeanne was a part of the burgeoning surfing scene in Perth. She was one of an early group of adventurous young women who chose not to just watch the boys, but to get out in the water and surf themselves. This began her life-long love of the ocean, and particularly Cottesloe Beach.
Jeanne married Morgan D’Arcy and the couple had two children, a son Michael and a daughter Maree. The marriage was described as dysfunctional and marred by heated arguments and allegations of domestic abuse on both sides. The couple divorced after about 20 years of marriage and lived apart for a period. They later 1 I will refer to her as Jeanne for the rest of the finding, at the request of Jeanne D’Arcy’s family, 2 Exhibit 1, Tab 3.
3 Exhibit 1, Tab 3.
4 Section 23 Coroners Act Direction of Acting State Coroner.
5 Exhibit 1, Tab 3 and Tab 6.
[2025] WACOR 29 began co-habiting again, although they slept in separate bedrooms and shared the expenses equally.6
Jeanne and her ex-husband Morgan purchased a house in Meadow Springs together in 2010. There is evidence that they owned their home in Meadow Springs together as joint tenants, which made the sale of it difficult if not mutually agreed by both parties. Jeanne didn’t like living in the Mandurah region and wanted to sell the house and live independently around the Melville area, but her ex-husband would not agree to sell. The issue caused constant friction between them. Their son Michael had attempted to intervene and mediate the issue, including arranging for his mother to see a lawyer, but it was not resolved at the time of Jeanne’s disappearance. It was reported by friends that Jeanne felt trapped, as her only financial asset was her share in the house, which she couldn’t sell, and she had to rely on her son for financial support.7
In order to escape the tension in the household, Jeanne would often go away to visit friends and relatives in Yallingup or Geraldton.8 She also sometimes booked a few nights in a hotel. Her ex-husband told police Jeanne particularly loved Cottesloe as this was where she had learned to surf as a young woman and she knew the water there well. This information was confirmed by her friends.9
Jeanne was very intelligent and had previously worked as a legal secretary. However, she had been forced to give up work for health reasons. She had kidney and bladder problems and had a catheter inserted, which led to infections that required frequent hospital admissions. Jeanne also had an injured shoulder, and she received regular cortisone injections to treat the issue. She was also prescribed a number of regular medications, including Valium (diazepam).10
Jeanne had not been diagnosed with any mental health conditions, although it is known that she had experienced trauma as a result of a sexual assault by a stranger who broke into a house where she was staying in 1994. Her troubled relationship with her ex-husband and ongoing issues with her living arrangements also occupied a lot of her mental space.11
Jeanne was known to frequently drink alcohol. Her children did not consider her to be alcohol dependent but other family members considered her to have a problem with alcohol misuse. She had also developed a dependency on her Valium (diazepam) medication, and she would sometimes mix her medication and alcohol, which would either send her to sleep or cause a negative personality change.12 6 Exhibit 1, Tab 3, Tab 4, Tab 5 and Tab 7.
7 Exhibit 1, Tab 3 and Tab 4.
8 Exhibit 1, Tab 4.
9 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 , Tab 5 and Tab 10.
10 Exhibit 1, Tab 4.
11 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 7.
12 Exhibit 1, Tab 4, Tab 7, Tab 13 to Tab 15.
As she could not work, Jeanne relied upon a disability pension for her income. Her family understood she had a separate bank account to her ex-husband and managed her finances separately from him.13
Jeanne had good relationships with family and friends and was described as open, warm and very well liked. She was also very independent.14 After looking at her phone and talking to her friends, her children believe she may have been in a relationship for a few years and she had possibly been on some dating sites, but there was no information to suggest she was in a relationship at the time of her death.15
Later enquiries established that on 13 April 2022 Jeanne had attended an appointment with a family lawyer in the Melville area at 10.30 am. Jeanne’s close friend, Rosilyne Briggs, went to the appointment with her. Rosilyne used to work with Jeanne, and they had been friends for over 20 years. Rosilyne was concerned about Jeanne’s relationship with her ex-husband, and she had encouraged Jeanne to leave him and force him to sell the house. She understood her friend had attempted to leave many times, but Rosilyne believed that Jeanne would always reconcile with her ex-husband and return to the status quo as he would enlist other family members to convince her not to pursue it. Rosilyne was trying to assist her to obtain legal advice and consider what steps to take next.16
Rosilyne told police that she had previously assisted Jeanne to make an application in the District Court for partition of land so that the Meadow Springs house could be sold and the proceeds divided equally, but Jeanne had withdrawn the application after her ex-husband and other family became aware.17
Jeanne had been in contact with the lawyer on 5 April 2022 and been told a possible option that might be available through the Family Court. It is clear Jeanne had vacillated whether to take this option any further but had ultimately decided to go and see the lawyer to explore it further.18
When Jeanne saw the lawyer on 13 April 2022, it is clear her primary focus was on seeking options for selling her house. Jeanne disclosed she had arguments with her ex-husband and things were not good between them, which is why she wanted to sell. The lawyer told Jeanne she had to decide whether to stay with the status quo for the sake of family harmony or commence proceedings, accepting it might initially cause some family upset. The lawyer understood she intended to go away and think about his advice. Rosilyne and the lawyer both recalled that Jeanne seemed quite positive after the appointment. Rosilyne also recalled the lawyer had suggested 13 Exhibit 1, Tab 4.
14 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 5.
15 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 7.
16 Exhibit 1, Tab 10.
17 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 and Tab 11.
18 Exhibit 1, Tab 11.
[2025] WACOR 29 Jeanne might want to leave Perth and go and visit her cousin before she took any action.19
Jeanne rang her cousin Christine ‘Tina’ Holmes that afternoon and asked if she could come and live with her for a while. Her cousin agreed and she thought Jeanne sounded excited.20
Although Rosilyne thought Jeanne seemed positive about the legal appointment, she then visited her son Michael at his work in South Perth around midday and Michael formed the impression the meeting had not gone the way she felt it would. He told police his mother seemed “pissed off”21 and was absolutely furious with her exhusband. She also said that she felt she had been let down by the whole family.
Normally Michael would be able to calm her down but on this day he couldn’t get her to settle. They spent about half an hour together and she mentioned possibly going to Geraldton to stay with a friend. Michael told her to go home and pack her things and he would help her get there. He understood when they parted that she would be going home, as part of this discussion, but he later found out she went to the OBH instead.
After seeing Michael, Jeanne had lunch at the Albion Hotel in Cottesloe, eating a steak and salad and drinking two glasses of wine. After finishing her lunch, she visited the bottle shop next to the Albion Hotel and purchased a bottle of wine.22
At 2.15 pm, Jeanne attended an appointment with her regular GP, Dr David Samuels.
She reportedly asked for another prescription for her Valium (diazepam) medication, but he declined to write her another prescription. The medical notes do note show that this request and denial occurred. Rather, it recorded that Jeanne received a steroid joint injection as she had been experiencing a sore shoulder for some time.
She had been given a prescription for Valium only a week earlier, on 6 April 2022, on a background of longstanding anxiety.23
20 Exhibit 1, Tab 14.
21 Exhibit 1, Tab 7 [37].
22 Exhibit 1, Tab 4, Tab 29 and Tab 40.
23 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 42.
24 Exhibit 1, Tab 4, Tab 10 and Tab 40.
[2025] WACOR 29 she got home safely. His mother did not mention to him that she had gone to the OBH instead of going home.25
Jeanne did tell her cousin Tina, when she had spoken to her at 4.35 pm that afternoon, that she was at the OBH. She had told Tina she was going to go to bed so she could wake up early, collect her belongings from Mandurah and then travel to Tina’s home. Tina thought it was strange she was talking about going to sleep at that time, as it was still the afternoon, but she was aware that Jeanne had a habit of mixing her prescription medication and alcohol, so she assumed that she was going to take some tablets and drink some wine then go to sleep.26
At 6.51 pm, Jeanne also spoke to another cousin, Gemma Staig (Ms Staig). They had a long conversation, lasting nearly an hour. Jeanne mentioned she had been to see the lawyer that day to try and find a way to sell the house and she was planning to go and visit Tina while the lawyer sorted it out. Jeanne appeared intoxicated but she seemed generally happy and they ended the call on good terms. Ms Staig had no concerns for Jeanne’s welfare at the time the call ended.27
However, Jeanne had called her friend Rosilyne a little earlier, at around 6.23 pm, and at this time she had been “absolutely distraught.”28 Rosilyne could tell that her friend had had a bit to drink. She was sobbing and saying, “Why am I the one to give up everything?”29 Jeanne had just had a shower, so Rosilyne encouraged her to go to bed, rest her mind and get some sleep.30
Jeanne had also spoken separately to Rosilyne’s husband, Nicol, around the same time. He noted that Jeanne sounded like she was under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and she was upset. Her recalled that his final words to Jeanne were, “Don’t do anything stupid Jeanne as there are many people who love you.”31
The fact that she then appeared settled when speaking to her cousin Ms Staig might be explained by the fact that Jeanne and Ms Staig, whilst cousins, were not in regular contact and she would not have known about many of the personal issues affecting Jeanne at the time, whereas Rosilyne and her husband were intimately involved.32
Jeanne’s daughter Maree was at home on Wednesday, 13 April 2022. She had a migraine, so she put her phone on silent and spent the day in bed. Maree’s husband Murray watched television with headphones on, so he wouldn’t disturb her. As a result, both Maree and her husband missed a number of calls from Jeanne at around 7.45pm. She left a voicemail on both their phones, but they did not call her back that day.33 25 Exhibit 1, Tab 7 and Tab 31.
26 Exhibit 1, Tab 14 and Tab 31.
27 Exhibit 1, Tab 15 and Tab 31.
28 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 [14].
29 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 [14].
30 Exhibit 1, Tab 10.
31 Exhibit 1, Tab 12, p. 3.
32 Exhibit 1, Tab 31.
33 Exhibit 1, Tab 4.
After making the missed calls to her daughter and son-in-law, Jeanne then rang her friend Cheryle Hoare (Ms Hoare). It appeared to Ms Hoare that Jeanne was drunk and in a nasty mood, similar to a previous occasion when Jeanne had mixed her medication and alcohol. Ms Hoare told Jeanne that she wouldn’t talk to her when she was like this and hung up on Jeanne. Jeanne continued to call Ms Hoare’s phone and text her, but Ms Hoare left the calls and messages unanswered as she didn’t want to engage with Jeanne when she was intoxicated. The last unanswered call was made by Jeanne at 8.34 pm, and this appears to be the last call Jeanne made to anyone that evening.34
Looking at the pattern of calls on that last afternoon/evening, it seems Jeanne was reaching out to a lot of people in her life. Along with the many conversations she had with family and friends, there were also a number of missed calls to other family members and her doctor. Some of the conversations she had were brief, and others were longer, but in most of them she appeared to be intoxicated and upset.35
It seems that after making her last attempt to call Ms Hoare, Jeanne went to the Cblu restaurant at the OBH just after 8.30 pm and ordered a takeaway coffee and cake, which she then took back to her room. The staff member who served her recalled that Jeanne seemed fine, and they had a brief chat about her day before Jeanne left with her order.36
At about 9.00 pm that evening, Jeanne spoke to a receptionist at the OBH and said she was having difficulty using her swipe access card to enter her room. The receptionist checked the card, which appeared to be working properly, but she recoded it just in case. She then reminded Jeanne which floor she should go to in order to find her room and Jeanne responded in a way that suggested she might be a little intoxicated, although she didn’t seem drunk and was described by the receptionist as “lovely and polite.”37
The last confirmed evidence of Jeanne alive is some CCTV footage of her, which showed Jeanne leaving the OBH hotel again at 11.09 pm. She then crossed the street, apparently unsteady on her feet, and walked down the footpath about 10 metres before crossing the road to the beachside of Marine Parade, out of view of the camera.38 34 Exhibit 1, Tab 13, Tab 18 and Tab 31.
35 Exhibit 1, Tab 31.
36 Exhibit 1, Tab 9 and Tab 29.
37 Exhibit 1, Tab 8 [6].
38 Exhibit 1, Tab 2 and Tab 18.
However, when Rosilyne rang her the next morning, Jeanne did not answer. She also didn’t answer the phone when her cousin Tina tried to call.39
Rosilyne contacted the OBH on the morning of Thursday, 14 April 2022 and spoke to the receptionist. Rosilyne mentioned that she had spoken to Jeanne the night before and now Jeanne wasn’t answering her calls. Rosilyne got someone to confirm that Jeanne’s car was still in the carpark, and she indicated she was worried for her welfare. It was around check-out time, so the receptionist tried calling Jeanne’s mobile and room, but she did not answer. The receptionist then called her supervisor, who gave authorisation for the receptionist to send someone to the room.40
A member of the housekeeping staff went to Jeanne’s room, which was unoccupied.
They observed Jeanne’s handbag and mobile phone on the bedside table. The bed looked like it had been slept in. They collected Jeanne’s belongings (which Rosilyne recalled were described as neatly packed up) and brought them to the reception. The receptionist was aware Jeanne’s friend was talking to Jeanne’s family and was considering reporting her missing to police, but the receptionist did not get involved in the search for Jeanne.41
Due to their level of concern, Rosilyne and her husband had travelled to the OBH, and they decided to go to the beach and see if Jeanne was at the beach watching the surfers, given they knew she loved to surf. They walked the length of Cottesloe beach but couldn’t find any sign of her. Rosilyne’s husband went to Karrakatta Cemetery to see if Jeanne may have gone to visit her father’s grave, as she was known to go there sometimes when she was in the area. However, there was no sign of her there.42
Jeanne’s son Michael was contacted by Rosilyne (whom he knows as Ros) that morning. Rosilyne told Michael that she was worried about his mother as she had tried calling her, but she wasn’t answering her phone. Rosilyne told Michael she had spoken to Jeanne the night before and at that time she had been “in a terrible state”43 and she thought police might need to become involved.44
Michael, called his sister Maree that same day and told her that their mother had gone missing from the OBH. Maree had been unaware that her mother was in Perth and did not know she had booked in to the hotel until that time.45
After speaking to her brother, Maree went to the OBH at about 12.30 pm and spoke to staff members. She showed them a photo of her mother and the manager at the CBlu restaurant said he had seen Jeanne the night before. Maree then went to the 39 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 and Tab 14.
40 Exhibit 1, Tab 8, Tab 9 and Tab 10.
41 Exhibit 1, Tab 8, Tab 9 and Tab 10.
42 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 and Tab 12.
43 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 [23].
44 Exhibit 1, Tab 7.
45 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 9.
[2025] WACOR 29 accommodation part of the hotel and was given her mother’s belongings that had been packed up from her room. Maree was given three bags of belongings. Included were her mother’s car keys, which she used to check her mother’s car, which was in the carpark. Inside the car were a number of documents, including medical notes and her mother’s birth certificate. The car had a full tank of fuel.46
Maree took the bags of her mother’s possessions homes and noted that the items included her mother’s handbag. Inside the handbag was Jeanne’s purse and some of her jewellery, including a watch, several gold bangles and a pendant. However, a few necklaces and rings that her mother always wore were not in the handbag. Jeanne’s prescription medications were also inside the bag. There was no note found in the bag or in the car that would be categorised as a ‘suicide note’. Police officers later attended Maree’s house and checked the car and found nothing remarkable in it.47
Michael went to the Kensington Police Station at 3.00 pm that afternoon to report his mother as a missing person.48 Jeanne’s children told police it was extremely out of character for their mother not to be contactable by any of her friends or family. She always kept in contact, when she went on trips away and would often speak to her children more than once a day.49
Given Jeanne had last been seen in Cottesloe, responsibility for the search shifted to Fremantle Police Station. Following some attempts to contact Jeanne, a check of the local hospitals and a search by foot of the beach.
At 6.05 pm on 14 April 2022, Jeanne’s black slip on shoes, water bottle and hotel room swipe key were located on the beach proximate to the end of Eileen Street, Cottesloe and close to the end of a beach path that led from the street to the beach.
The items were up near the dunes, away from the shoreline. Jeanne had been noted on the CCTV footage the night before to be wearing what appeared to be the same shoes and carrying the room key and water bottle. The evidence strongly suggested she had gone down to the beach and left them there that evening. They appeared to have been carefully placed together, safely away from the waters’ edge.50 46 Exhibit 1, Tab 4.
47 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 30.
48 Exhibit 1, Tab 7.
49 Exhibit 1, Tab 4 and Tab 7.
50 Exhibit 1, Tab 18, p. 7, Tab 22, Tab 24 and Tab 41.
[2025] WACOR 29 Aerial view of the route walked from the OBH to where the items of black slip on shoes, a water bottle and hotel room swipe key were located on the beach, adjacent to the end of Eileen Street, depicted in more detail in the photograph below.51 51 Exhibit 1, Tab 33 and Tab 34
After these items were discovered, the incident was assessed by WA Police and categorised as a Level 2 Incident at 7.52 pm. A multi-agency response then commenced.52 The search that night included an aircraft from WA Police Airwing searching the beach and waters from City Beach to Port Beach and a Water Police vessel conducting a shoreline search one nautical mile either side of the last known location of Jeanne at the beach. This was based on Water Police drift modelling, which suggested that there was a high probability Jeanne would have drifted to shore between Port Beach and City Beach if she had been floating in the water. However, some modelling showed she could have drifted as far out as Rottnest Island in the West and Centaur Reef in the north, so it was possible she could already have been outside the search area. In addition, if her body was submerged, then the drift modelling was unable to predict her location.53
An emergency alert was also sent out to people in the local area, and calls from members of the public about police sightings began to come in that evening. All possible sightings were investigated over the following days, but none of them led to a confirmed sighting of Jeanne. Police officers also doorknocked houses in the area to try to obtain any more CCTV footage sightings of Jeanne, but none were located.54
After daybreak the next day, three vessels began searching on the water, working out to six square nautical miles from the beach location. Foot searches of the beach and dunes also continued. Aerial searching also continued with the use of a drone until mid-morning. Mounted police officers joined the search and Water Police divers also attended to do a snorkel search and ascertain if they could sight Jeanne’s body underwater. However, it was noted that there had been hundreds of local Surf Club swimmers in the water in the area that morning, so it was thought if she had been close to shore, she would have been located already. The divers completed their search by early afternoon and found nothing of interest.55
The search continued on 16 April 2022. An expert on timeframes for survival, Dr Paul Luckin, was consulted by WA Police and he advised that if Jeanne had gone into the water, her timeframe for survival would have been very short (30 minutes at most) so there was no likelihood by that time that she would be found alive in the water. In terms of a recovery operation for her body, Dr Luckin advised that her body might have been expected to re-surface on or about 16 April 2022, but if the body had been opened by marine creatures, that might not have occurred.56
Given there was no realistic of a rescue, and even the recovery operation had a low probability of success given nothing had been found by that time, the search was slowly scaled down after 16 April 2022. It was officially terminated on the morning of 18 April 2022. However, some limited searching was still done by various police officers and police divers over the following days, with nothing more of note found.
The Public Transport Authority confirmed Jeanne had not recently used her 52 Exhibit 1. Tab 20 and Tab 41.
53 Exhibit 1, Tab 22 and Tab 41.
54 Exhibit 1, Tab 22 and Tab 24.
55 Exhibit 1, Tab 3 and Tab 22.
56 Exhibit 1, Tab 22 and Tab 41.
[2025] WACOR 29 SmartCard to travel from Cottesloe and given she had left her car in the hotel carpark, her only way to leave the area would have been on foot.57
Jeanne’s ex-husband provided a statement to police after her disappearance. He stated that Jeanne had made comments in the past about walking into the ocean to end it all. He indicated she had a particular connection with Cottesloe from her youth, so it was not a surprise to him to hear that she had gone missing at Cottesloe Beach. He believes firmly that she deliberately entered the water with an intention to end her life, having chosen a spot on the beach where she wouldn’t be seen by people from the nearby restaurants.
Ms Darcy’s son agreed that he had heard his mother talk about ‘going into the ocean’ in the context of ending her life, but told police he hadn’t heard her say anything like that for about five years prior to her disappearance. He had never thought she would follow through with such an act. Michael told police his mother had also said to him in the past that she would get a caravan and travel around Australia with ‘some bloke’. He was very close to his mother and I understand his way of coping with his mother’s disappearance has been to hold out some hope that maybe she is happily travelling and will return one day, as that is an easier way to make his peace with losing her from his life. I do not, however, understand he would seek to persuade me that this is true.59
Ms Darcy’s good friend Rosilyne told the police in September 2023 that Jeanne had said to her on numerous occasions, “When this all gets too much, I have this fantasy of swimming out into the ocean and not coming back.”60 Rosilyne believes it is very likely Jeanne took some of her Valium medication and drank alcohol before following through with this plan.
Jeanne had made similar statements to her friend Ms Hoare, and Ms Hoare had also thought Jeanne had mixed her alcohol and medication that night, given her mood.
57 Exhibit 1, Tab 22 and Tab 24.
58 T 38; Exhibit 1, Tab 3 and Tab 40.
59 Exhibit 1, Tab 7 and Tab 10.
60 Exhibit 1, Tab 10 [38].
[2025] WACOR 29 She agreed with Rosilyne’s view that Jeanne deliberately went into the ocean that night with an intention to end her life.61
Jeanne’s family wanted to know why the police divers were not directed to search the water in the cove, based on the information they provided about Jeanne’s association with The Cove.
Sgt Crawshaw explained that it is standard for the search to focus on the last known place, which in this case was the spot where Jeanne had left her shoes and room key card. With the benefit of Sgt Crawshaw’s considerable experience coordinating searches, he thought it was unlikely that a person would have deposited their property and walked to the location at that time of night and in the state Jeanne was 61 Exhibit 1, Tab 13.
62 Exhibit 1, Tab 14.
[2025] WACOR 29 known to be in, and the most reasonable location to focus the search was where her property had been left.63
Therefore, even if the search had been more specifically directed to the area of The Cove, after taking heed of the information provided by family members, Sgt Crawshaw believed it would have been limited to a beach search and aerial search of the water as it would have been unsafe for divers and the reef makes it too difficult for boats to enter that area. He also noted the area is well frequented by surfers, so they would likely have reported to the authorities if anything unusual had been seen in the water.64
SH Linton Acting State Coroner 20 June 2025
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