By John Q. Hosedrinker 
An inquest into the death of 32-year-old Jade Damarell, a highly experienced skydiver, concluded that her death was a suicide. Damarell intentionally did not deploy her parachute during a jump from 15,500 feet after ending a relationship the previous night. Evidence presented at the inquest revealed that she had disabled safety features and left a note on her phone addressed to her family. The coroner, Leslie Hamilton, determined that Damarell intended to end her life, and her family has since accepted the findings while expressing a desire to address mental health openly.
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An experienced skydiver deliberately fell to her death, a coroner has found, a grim reality that immediately triggers a cascade of difficult thoughts. The stark details of the case, a 32-year-old woman, Jade Damarell, ending her life after a breakup, paint a picture of profound despair. It’s a tragedy made all the more poignant by the circumstances – a life lived in the exhilarating freedom of the sky, suddenly and intentionally ended.
The fact that Damarell had completed over 500 jumps, including six the day before, adds a layer of complexity. It’s hard to reconcile the joy of skydiving, a sport often associated with thrill-seeking and a zest for life, with the deliberate act of taking one’s own. The coroner’s conclusion of suicide, based on her intentional non-deployment of the parachute and disabling of the automatic deployment device, leaves little room for doubt. The inquest also heard that she ended her relationship with her partner the night before, an emotionally charged trigger, and the details of the situation, the context, the note from the former partner, contribute to a portrait of the lead-up to this heartbreaking decision.
One of the most haunting aspects of this story is the level of premeditation. The deliberate choice to not deploy the parachute, the turning off of the safety device – these are deliberate actions that require a degree of resolve. It’s a commitment to a final act that’s hard to fully comprehend. It makes you wonder about the thoughts and feelings that filled those final moments as she fell from 15,500ft. Did she have second thoughts? Was there fear, regret, or was it a release, a sense of finality?
The article mentions the toast she ate before her final jump, and it is this detail that sticks with me. It’s the small, seemingly insignificant moments of ordinary life that are somehow more emotionally charged when juxtaposed with such an extraordinary act. It’s the mundane – the eating of toast, the washing and folding of clothes – that amplifies the tragedy, highlighting the human element, the life that was lived and then deliberately ended. It’s almost as if those small acts were her last attempt to connect with life before she decided to let go.
The presence of another person as a witness adds another layer of sadness to the incident, for the witness would be traumatized, and the image of a person falling to their death must surely be one of the most harrowing experiences imaginable. The fact that this was a witnessed event adds to the weight of the story.
The family’s desire to speak openly about her death is commendable, wanting to “contribute to a culture where mental ill-health is met with kindness and support.” Suicide can touch anyone. It highlights the importance of mental health awareness and the need for compassion. It serves as a stark reminder that even those who appear to have it all, who live lives filled with adventure and seemingly no boundaries, can be battling hidden demons.
The story is incredibly sad, and it seems there’s no easy way to process the information. It’s a reminder of how fragile life can be, and the immense pain that can lead someone to such a drastic action. It’s a tragedy that leaves you with a sense of profound sadness, and a deep empathy for all those affected. The questions of “why” and “what if” are, of course, left unanswered, and it’s in the space between those unanswerable questions that the weight of the story truly settles.