Mystery endures as coroner delivers open finding in farmer's poisoning death

Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes on Wednesday delivered an open finding in the death of Douglas Thrift, who was found dead in a bedroom of his Denman home about 8pm on December 1, 2018, only hours after finishing his regular Saturday round of golf.

An initial autopsy determined his cause of death was heart disease and it wasn't until family members raised concerns with a coroner that toxicology and pathology testing was ordered.

Those tests, undertaken after Mr Thrift had been cremated, revealed surprising results; the 71-year-old had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.207mg/L and a fatal dose of 3.8mg/L of strychnine, making Mr Thrift one of only eight people in more than 30,000 to have the restricted substance detected in his blood at post-mortem.

It wasn't until four years after Mr Thrift's death that police searching a shed on his property stumbled upon a small glass bottle that they thought may have been the source of the poison that claimed his life.

A three-day coronial inquest in Newcastle last month explored the circumstances of Mr Thrift's death, with the focus on how he came to ingest the fatal dose of strychnine, a highly-toxic and banned pesticide.

The inquest heard there were three possible circumstances, including that Mr Thrift ingested the poison deliberately with the intention of taking his own life, that he ingested it unintentionally somehow or that it was administered to him by another person.

In her findings, published on Thursday morning, Ms Forbes said she was satisfied that the bottle found by police was the source of the strychnine ingested by Mr Thrift and he must have consumed the alcohol and strychnine shortly before his death.

But despite Mr Thrift's history of alcohol abuse and depression, Ms Forbes said she could not make a positive finding that Mr Thrift intentionally took the strychnine to end his life.

Ms Forbes said she was satisfied that Mr Thrift had not accidentally absorbed or inhaled the strychnine and said "it would be inappropriate to comment" on the available evidence in relation to other possibilities, which the inquest heard included homicide, as there may be "new relevant evidence in the future".

Ms Forbes said Mr Thrift had left no suicide note, not informed anyone he was going to take his own life and appeared his usual self at golf on the morning of his death.

He was happy about positive feedback from his doctor about a medical condition and was planning to meet his sons for a Christmas lunch the next day.

Mr Thrift had also bought $100,000 worth of farming equipment for his farm and, within hours of being found dead, was arranging the bailing of his hay for that evening.

"He had recently purchased a retirement house at the coast," Ms Forbes said. "He was involved and enjoyed his grandchildren's lives. "On many accounts he was happy and had so much to live for and there is no cogent available evidence of why he would take his life on that day. "In these circumstances, I am not able to make a positive finding that Mr Thrift intentionally took the strychnine to end his life."

Ms Forbes offered her condolences to Mr Thrift's family and acknowledged "the painful and persistent uncertainty felt by them in not knowing what happened"

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