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A coroner has ruled that Robert Brown, 57, whose discovery slumped over a blood-soaked bench in Northampton, England, last August prompted a full murder investigation and the arrest of three people, died in a "tragic accident" — the result of passing out drunk on a knife concealed in his own bag.
The ruling, delivered Thursday, formally closes one of the more unusual homicide inquiries in recent British legal memory, and places the human cost of that investigation in sharp relief.
A Scene That Pointed — Wrongly — Toward Homicide Brown was found on Aug. 1, 2025, in Northampton, according to reporting by the Northampton Chronicle and Echo.
The discovery — a man unresponsive, a bench saturated with blood — led authorities to open a murder inquiry. Three individuals were arrested in connection with the death before being released.
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