A mother is still looking for answers about her son’s death – 16 months after his body was found in undergrowth in the family’s garden.

Miller Redpath, 17, went missing from his home in Wenhaston, near Southwold, in August 2013.

After a nationwide appeal by his mother Anastacia Miller, police found his body in undergrowth on October 24 that year.

Yesterday, the mystery continued as an inquest could not reveal how the popular teenager died –with the coroner saying there were “unanswerable questions” surrounding his death.

The Lowestoft inquest heard that Mrs Miller said her son was “intelligent”, and his disappearance on August 13 initially gave her no reason to be concerned.

But concern increased when he failed to collect his A-level results from Langley School, near Loddon, a few days later.

Greater Suffolk coroner Peter Dean said: “One can hardly imagine what a difficult period of time it must have been for his mother not knowing where he was.”

Dr Dean added: “It was clear from the condition of the body that it had sadly been there for some time.

“The body may well have been present for much, if not all the time Miller was missing.”

He said the post mortem could not reveal a cause of death, but ruled out drugs and foul play.

“The evidence did not point to the involvement of any other person in the tragic loss of Miller Redpath,” he said. “And although we have heard that the body had been there for a considerable period of time, there’s still uncertainty over the exact circumstances in which Miller came by his death.”

Recording an open verdict, Dr Dean said there were still “unanswerable questions” over Miller’s death. A statement given by Mrs Miller described Miller as “physically and mentally strong” with many interests outside his studies, particularly the performing arts.

She said he was an “enthusiastic and popular young man”, who was “particularly thoughtful when it came to the thoughts and feelings of others”.

He was however “strong-willed” and the pair had disagreements over him smoking, but they had spent a “lovely” few days together in the period leading up to his disappearance.

By August 16, 2013, Mrs Miller took to the streets of Lowestoft and Norwich looking for Miller or anyone who might have had contact with him.

And on his 18th birthday on September 2, Miller still had not been in touch with his mother –who launched a national campaign to find him on social media when she realised he had not taken any money, his passport or his phone charger with him.

A police search of the property October 15 found a Halloween mask he had bought, but no sign of Miller until his body was found in another search.

An internal investigation by Suffolk police found the force’s actions were appropriate and there was nothing the police could have done to prevent Miller’s death.