An 88-year-old woman drowned in a shallow garden pond after going into the garden in her nightdress, a coroner has been told.

Former school laboratory technician Eileen Meredith was found dead by her daughters when they arrived at her home to take her out for lunch, the Bournemouth inquest heard.

Mrs Meredith, who suffered from dementia, heart disease and kidney disease, lived alone at Sandy Mead Road in Queens Park, Bournemouth, following the death of her husband, Terence, from cancer last year, Dorset Coroner Sheriff Payne was told.

It is not known whether Mrs Meredith entered the pond accidentally or intended to do so.

The inquest heard she had been discovered in the pond on a previous occasion around four years ago and claimed she could not get out.

But her daughter, Linda Stocks, said: “She almost certainly could have got herself out. She had been known in the past to do odd things for attention.”

The pond was described as 12 inches deep at its deepest point and the inquest was told there was another, larger pond in the garden.

Mr Payne heard the alarm was raised at 10.15am on July 29, a day after she had been found on the floor of her home by a carer, who said she had been confused and hallucinating.

After hearing the evidence, Mr Payne said: “We have a bit of a mystery here.

“Whether it was an attention-getting exercise I don’t know – I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

He recorded a narrative verdict which said: “On the balance of probabilities, Mrs Meredith placed herself in her garden pond.

“Her intention in doing so is unclear.”