Three-year-old Noah Woods managed to leave a play area through a gap in a fence shortly before he went missing, an inquest into his death has heard.
The hearing, which opened at Suffolk Coroner’s Court in Ipswich on Friday, 25 September 2026, detailed the final known movements of the toddler. Noah’s disappearance from a playground at Merriam Close in Brantham on 15 September triggered a search involving approximately 1,300 members of the public and emergency services.
Assistant Coroner Jyoti Gill heard evidence from DCI Matthew Connick of Suffolk Police, who explained that motion-activated CCTV footage showed Noah playing with a relative between 2:13 pm and 2:37 pm on the day he vanished.
The footage and subsequent investigation revealed that Noah left the playground through a gap in the fence, entered a memorial garden, and then passed through an open gate leading towards Decoy Pond.
A large-scale search operation followed, with Metropolitan Police divers eventually recovering Noah’s body on 16 September. He was found submerged in tree roots at a depth of 1.8 metres, approximately five metres from the shore of Decoy Pond.
Suffolk Police have confirmed that the death is not being treated as suspicious. Suffolk Constabulary previously stated that formal identification had been completed following the recovery.
Family tribute to ‘amazing’ boy
Noah, who was non-verbal and had hearing loss, was undergoing an assessment for autism at the time of his death. In a tribute released following his disappearance, his family described him as an “amazing” boy who had recently begun making significant progress with his speech.
The family expressed their gratitude to the local community in Brantham and East Bergholt, noting that the scale of the volunteer search effort had provided them with “great comfort” during the search.
The medical cause of death was recorded at the inquest as “awaiting further determination” pending the full results of a post-mortem examination carried out at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
The six-minute hearing was adjourned to a later date to allow for further investigations to be completed.