Bizarre!! "Bye, you won't see us again": Elderly couple's final words to daughter before train suicides

An elderly couple struggling to cope financially after their daughter moved back home with her boyfriend took their own lives by stepping in front of a train.

On the day they died, Peter Smith, 80, and his wife of more than 50 years, Betty, 78, waved goodbye to their daughter, Jane saying: “Goodbye, you won’t see us again.”

They then walked to an unmanned level crossing and stood holding hands in front of a freight train.

Shortly beforehand they had told a friend they were struggling because it was costing them £500 a week to support their daughter.

Jane, 50, didn’t attend the inquest but in a statement to the hearing at Lincoln Cathedral Centre she said her parents never mentioned any money problems.

She revealed she had argued with her mum on the morning she died.

She said: “I had asked if I could store some of my things in the spare room. She did not want me to as it would have made her house untidy.

“Later my father said he wanted to go into town. As they left, my father turned to me and said, ‘Goodbye, you won’t see us again’.”

 

Retired Post Office worker Peter and Betty met when they were both in their early teens before marrying.
The couple lived in Cherry Willingham, Lincs, while only child Jane lived in nearby Lincoln with her partner Tim Evans, 50.
The inquest heard Jane and Tim moved back into the family home in May last year after having sanitation problems in their own property.
Det Sgt Shanie Erwin of British Transport Police told the hearing she traced someone who spoke to Betty in the weeks leading up to her death.
She said: “During the conversation she [Betty Smith] was very upset. She described how she had thought about jumping off a railway bridge but persuaded her not to.
“She was complaining that it was costing in the order of £500 a week to feed and look after her daughter.”

Peter and Betty calmly walked to their deaths just two months after Jane returned home.
The inquest at Lincoln Cathedral Centre heard that the Smiths did not react when the driver of the 700-tonne train sounded his horn.
The couple died instantly as a result of massive injuries caused by the train, which was travelling at 45mph.
Central Lincolnshire coroner Stuart Fisher returned verdicts of suicide on both Peter and Betty Smith who died on 9 July last year.
The coroner said: “This is clearly an immensely tragic case.
“I have formed the view that looking at this case in the round that it is appropriate that I make a finding that Mr and Mrs Smith clearly did form an intention that they were going to take their own lives.”