Skydiver's 'amazing death' hint

A skydiver who plummeted 13,000 feet to his death after using a sabotaged parachute was mired in debt, breaking up with his girlfriend and convinced he had failed his degree for the second time, an inquest heard yesterday.

Stephen Hilder, whose horrific death in July 2003 triggered a worldwide murder hunt, had also told a friend that if he ever decided on suicide he "wanted to do something amazing" and specifically mentioned jumping out of a plane.

Ten months' detective work, had led to the arrest of the 20-year-old's closest friends and suspicions cast throughout the country's closeknit skydiving community. It ended in the "absolute" conviction of police that he had not been murdered, the inquest at Scunthorpe was told.

North Lincolnshire Coroner Stewart Atkinson heard that only Stephen's DNA had been found on his severed parachute straps and a pair of scissors, locked in his car boot, which also had traces of strap fabric on them. Minute traces were also found on Stephen's T-shirt which only he had worn.

"As the chief investigator in this case, I can say that there is strong possibility that Stephen could have taken his own life," Det Supt Colin Andrews, the head of the inquiry. "I would not say that's an absolute thought in my mind. What I would say is an absolute thought, is that he wasn't murdered."

Mr Andrews said that he was initially convinced that he was looking for a killer, when police were called to Hibaldstow airfield, a ramshackle parachuting base in flat cornfields near Scunthorpe. Hilder's shattered body contrasted sharply with his apparent popularity, hectic social life and a video of him grinning and looking unconcerned on the aircraft ascent to his final jump.

The young skydiver appeared to be a promising army cadet at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Wiltshire, whose team was leading the field in a national youth championship rally at Hibaldstow. But inquiries gradually revealed a life going badly wrong, from flunked exams and a fixation with parachuting to a growing pile of personal debt.

Stephen's parents were at the inquest which heard that he had exhausted loans on a clutch of credit cards, owed a total of more than £17,000 and had bounced a cheque at the academy mess for over £200. He had been summoned by a major two weeks before his death and given 'serious advice' about the standards of integrity expected in potential army officers.

Inspector Barry Longstaff of Humberside police said that Hilder had also believed, mistakenly, that he had failed a second shot at taking his degree. The inquest heard that after failing to get into Cambridge, he had gone to Bristol University on an army scholarship but flunked his first year exams and had to leave.

Mr Longstaff said that his skydiving obsession had led him to actually missing one exam, and that he had looked back to his Bristol debacle with "deep regret".

His fears that he had failed again, at Shrivenham, were compounded by the break-up of his relationship with a fellow-cadet, Ruth Woodhouse, and tensions within the skydiving world where "heavy drinking, a small amount of drug taking and sexual promiscuity was rife".

The inquest heard that Hilder had given no indications of suicide and had not left a note. No sign of a "secret life' had been found either by undercover detectives who trawled for information in gay bars.

Mr Longstaff said that the evidence pointed to a possible search for a way out by Hilder, who hit the ground at 120mph after both his main parachute and a reserve were sabotaged. He told the coroner: "He did not want to be a failure and he died in a manner that meant his death was an honourable way out for him. He had told a witness that if he was to take his own life he wanted to do something amazing."

Hilder had also previously told his jump companion Adrian Blair , a fellow cadet who was arrested, cleared and has since moved to the United States to try to rebuild his life, that if he did kill himself it would be by jumping from a plane.

The inquest continues.

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