Photo: Jade Damarell/Facebook
Jade Damarell, an experienced skydiver from the United Kingdom, deliberately fell to her death one day after she ended a relationship with her partner, authorities confirmed via the Guardian.
Damarell, 32, of Wales, who had more than 500 successful jumps in her career, fell 15,500 feet into a field in County Durham, England and died from blunt trauma injuries on April 27, Coroner Leslie Hamilton announced at an inquest into her death, which was officially ruled as a suicide. Hamilton said a note from her former partner, identified as Ben Goodfellow, 26, by the Daily Mail, whom she met through mutual admiration for skydiving, acknowledged that the couple "ended their relationship" on the night prior to her death.
“The two of them were inseparable,” an anonymous friend told the Daily Mail of the former couple, who had dated for about eight months.
"The night before Jade died, Ben called off the relationship,” the friend claimed. “He went to work the next day, and that’s when Jade fell to her death."
Damarell had completed six skydiving jumps on the day of her death, but deliberately didn't deploy her main parachute and turned off a device designed to automatically do so at certain altitude and speed if a skydiver is unable to do so manually, according to Hamilton. Additionally, Damarell typically wore a camera on her dives but opted not to on her final jump, according to the Guardian.
Damarell left instructions on her phone lock screen on how to access it after her death, which included notes for her family found on a handset “apologising and thanking them for their support” and giving details about her finances. The skydiver's family described her as “brilliant, beautiful, brave and truly extraordinary" and was “incredibly comforted by how admired, respected and deeply loved she was," adding that they wanted to contribute to a "culture where mental ill-health is met with kindness and support.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.