Deborah Smith: Forest Hill NDIS client was found dead in Quest hotel laneway
A coroner has heard how a NDIS client had gone missing for four days before she was tragically found dead near a hotel in Melbourne’s east.
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An NDIS client found dead in a laneway near a hotel in Melbourne’s east had a history of going missing, the coroner’s court has heard.
Forest Hill’s Deborah Smith, 64, who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, was discovered near Quest Apartments in Burwood East on August 14, four days after she went missing.
A directions hearing to begin the inquest into Ms Smith’s death was held at the Coroner’s Court of Victoria on Friday, September 9.
Coroner’s assistant Leading Senior Constable Dani Lord said it was mandatory to hold the hearing within 28 days of the death of a person in NDIS care.
The court heard Ms Smith lived on her own at her unit on Mahoneys Rd in Forest Hill but was visited daily by support workers.
Leading Sen-Constable Lord said Ms Smith suffered from various medical conditions and had been reported to police as a missing person on several previous occasions.
She last spoke on the phone to a worker on August 8 and withdrew money from the Commonwealth Bank branch at Forest Hill Chase shopping centre the next day.
Leading Sen-Constable Lord said police spent four days searching for Ms Smith which included using the mounted branch and inquiring with local hospitals and shopping centres.
She was then found by a member of the public in a laneway next to the hotel on Burwood Highway on August 14.
The hotel was about 1.4km from Ms Smith’s home and Sen-Constable Lord said it was unclear why she was in that location.
She said there were no suspicious circumstances or evidence of foul play, and her cause of death was yet to be determined.
Coroner Simon McGreggor ordered for a brief into Ms Smith’s death to be submitted by December 9 for investigation.
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