Australian rocker Nick Cave's son Arthur fell from a cliff in England this past summer, and it appears drugs played a major role in his death. A coroner's inquest has revealed that the 15-year-old boy had taken the hallucinogen LSD before falling to his death on July 14, according to The Guardian.
At the time of the incident, he was found on a path without any shoes on below the cliff with a fatal brain injury. He was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away later that night.
The inquest also revealed that Arthur and a friend had taken the LSD near a windmill together that day. It was their first time taking the drug, and they took about three tabs of acid. At first they were fine, but then they started having alarming hallucinations, and this is when Arthur separated from his friend in a a panic.
Witnesses described that they saw Arthur "staggering" on the edge of the cliff moments before he fell, according to The Associated Press. Veronica Langford, who was one of the witnesses, was the one who had to share the graphic details to Nick and his wife Susie Bick during the hearing.
"I was stuck in slow-moving traffic with my 11-year-old daughter as we were coming from a school open evening," Langford told coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deely. "Because it was so slow, I had time to observe what was going on around me. As we approached the top of the hill, I noticed a young man walking-staggering and zig-zagging on the grass. I was concerned and my initial reaction that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol."
She then went on to explain that Arthur "slumped down into the grass" and was no longer in her vision. "I thought to myself, 'I need to go get him.' I said to my daughter, 'Look sweetheart, we need to go and do our Good Samaritan a bit.' My daughter saw him get up, and when I looked in my rear view mirror he had come down the bank and over the fence. I had a real sinking feeling at this point."
Langford, her daughter and other witnesses hurried to the cliffs, where they found him motionless on the concrete below. "In Arthur's case, sadly, and I think mercifully, it was clear that he was not aware of what was going on," Dr. Paul Ransom said, according to The Guardian. "The point of impact was the point of death."
"Our son Arthur died Tuesday evening," Nick Cave said in a statement days after the tragedy, according to People. "He was our beautiful, happy, loving boy. We ask that we be given the privacy our family needs to grieve at this difficult time." Arthur's twin brother, Earl, left flowers where Arthur had passed. "Arthur-I love you so much," his message read. "You were a joy to be around and I will never forget you. You were the best brother I could ever ask for."
