18 January 2023 , 18:07
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A couple in debt and facing eviction from their country manor killed their dog and then shot themselves in a tragic suicide pact.
John and Angela Richardson killed themselves with a shotgun in the 100-acre woodland behind their £4,500-a-month rented farmhouse, after investors started to pull out of a new business they had set up.
A coroner was told that the elderly couple had got themselves into "irredeemable debt" starting their business - the Space Flight Academy Ltd - which promised aeromedical research and space flight simulations.
While Mrs Richardson, aged 64 years, was the brains behind the company, her family said her 74-year-old husband and business partner, journalist John Richardson had been her support emotionally and financially.
Since launching the business in 2011, Mrs Richardson had desperately tried to get investors on board in a mission to raise £35 million she needed to get her project off the ground.
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The inquest in Oxford heard that she told family and friends the couple had interest from companies and people with huge amounts of money to spend - including the King of Bahrain and the RAF.
Over the next 10 years, they borrowed money in every way they could and owed staggering sums to family members and an accountant.
In June 2022, Mrs Richardson had been in last-ditch talks with a company in Austria who promised to invest £70,000.
However, in the days before her death the investors pulled out and said that they would not been supporting the idea.
The coroner was told that Mrs Richardson was "distraught, desperate and upset" and in an email to her brother wrote that she had "no plans, no future and no energy to keep going. We have come to the end of our road," the email said.
Speaking at the inquest in Oxford Detective Sergeant Richard Earl from the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Unit said: "They had put all of their eggs into one basket for the £70,000 loan and when that fell through it was devastating."
He said the £70,000 investment would have only bought them time and that they would have still had a huge amount of debt and been a "long way off" from building the business.
He said Mrs Richardson had a "strong disconnect" between the reality of her investors and her dreams for the business.
As part of his investigation, in the days after her death, the detective spoke with the team at the RAF who said that her business plan had been interesting but, in their eyes, was a long way off from being ready and that they had made no guarantees about ever committing money.
The coroner was told that couple had been so committed to their plan that they even sold their own home for extra cash and withdrew part of their pensions. They lived with family for 19 months, often making comments about how if the business didn't work, they would kill themselves.
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At one point, Mr Richardson - who had been used to the finer things in life, once even hiring King Charles' architect to decorate his new boat - had said he would rather "commit suicide than living in social housing."
The inquest heard that it was in May 2022 that the Richardsons approached an estate agent about living at the rented farm house in Goring Heath, South Oxfordshire, offering to pay a year's rent of around £50,000 upfront, in lieu of his bad credit rating.
However, they never paid the money and were later served an eviction notice giving them until 10am on June 8 to pay or leave the property.
When the landlord arrived at the farmhouse on that morning and met the bailiff, they found a note on the property that said: "We are in the woods, sorry it has come to this, call the police."
Officers scoured the 100-acre woodland and found the couple dead next to their dog which had been shot too.
Handwritten and typed suicide notes were signed by both of them - matching up to the same handwriting found on cards and letters they had sent in earlier years.
Speaking to the family, coroner Ingles Graham ruled a verdict of suicide, saying: "I am confident [John] and Angela had demonstrated full intention to end their lives with notes, computer searches and the loss and ending of their business venture, all which would have amounted to a big change in their lives."
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