The body of a missing 82-year-old man from Leiston whose disappearance sparked a large-scale search and rescue mission in Suffolk was discovered by a drone, an inquest opening has heard.
Brian Nunn was pronounced dead on August 1, 2019 after his body was found in a field near Sizewell.
Mr Nunn had disappeared from his home in Abbey Road at around 10am on Friday, July 19, and was reported missing by his wife.
Police launched a search operation to find him, enrolling the help of specialist search teams including volunteers from Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue, a police helicopter and dog teams.
Mr Nunn's wife Janice and son Andrew put out an impassioned plea for information, saying they were growing increasing worried about his welfare as he suffered from an irregular heartbeat which leaves him out of breath.
Suffolk police also released a dash-cam image of Mr Nunn, captured as he walked along Lovers Lane heading towards Sizewell on the afternoon he went missing.
More than 200 people from the area came together to look for Mr Nunn and a Facebook page was set up to organise twice-daily searches. His body was discovered almost two weeks after he was reported missing by a search and rescue drone.
An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned at Suffolk Coroner's Court, in Ipswich, on Friday, December 27.
During the brief hearing, senior coroner Nigel Parsley said Mr Nunn, a former shopfitter, had been previously diagnosed with dementia and had gone missing from his home before.
He said: "On Friday, July 19, 2019, police were contacted by the wife of Mr Nunn reporting her husband was missing.
"The information posted by police control centre at the time was he had left the home address at around 10am in the morning and had not returned.
"Police were made aware he had suffered from dementia and had gone missing before.
"At 11.53pm on July 19 specialised search and rescue provided a full-scale search.
"At 7.05pm on August 1 a drone identified a deceased body within a secluded field.
"Police attended and confirmed a deceased body had been found."
Mr Parsley said the inquest would resume on March 19 following a case review in January.
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