July 20th 2023.
On March 11, Shannon Owen, 22, was out walking with her best friend, her friend's brother and her pet dog in the woods of south Oxfordshire. She was talking on FaceTime with her sister, Georgia, when tragedy struck. Suddenly, an 18 foot branch crashed on top of her, hitting her chest and severely injuring her. Georgia watched as her phone screen showed a blur as Shannon's phone flew through the air.
The group had been walking off the beaten path down a hill to get to a rope swing attached to a tree that Sinead, Shannon's best friend, was playing on for around 20 minutes. Shannon was sitting on a tree stump just opposite when Georgia called her about a private and confidential letter posted through the door.
Oxfordshire senior coroner, Darren Salter, recorded an accidental death verdict, saying that Shannon died from a 'freak accident' near Whitchurch-on-Thames. Georgia explained in a statement read to the inquest that it all happened so quickly. All she saw was Shannon's phone rolling down the hill.
The emergency services had difficulty getting to Shannon as she was on an embankment. A detective constable told the coroner that police, paramedics and firefighters had to tie ropes between the trees so emergency crews could abseil down the hill instead. Sadly, Shannon died at the scene.
Since the tragedy, Shannon's mother, Lisa Owen, has called on the landowner to put fencing around the woodland. However, the owner said it was not practical or desirable, and instead purchased 24 private woodland signs saying "keep out" and "do not enter" which have been placed at 100m intervals either side of the footpath. The rotting tree was chopped down last month, some five months after Shannon's passing.
The coroner concluded that Shannon's death was an accident and no third-party involvement or suspicious circumstances were found. Sinead, Shannon's younger sister, summed it up in her heartbreaking statement: "Shannon was not just my older sister, but she was also my best friend."
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