30/04/2025
Canberra times
Police to review Nathan Booth's death after coroner finds 'most likely' cause
By Bageshri Savyasachi
April 30 2025 - 1:27pm
This story contains the name and image of an Aboriginal person who has died.
The ACT's Galambany courtroom broke into applause at the end of the coronial inquest into Nathan Booth's death on Wednesday morning.
"It goes back to [the homicide team], and that's what we wanted," his sister, Deanne Booth, told a room of about 40 family members and supporters.
Her words followed coroner Ken Archer's open finding in the case of the 40-year-old's death, who was last seen on June 27, 2019, and whose body was found months later on December 1 at a remote spot on the Murrumbidgee River.
The coroner found Booth most likely died around the time he failed to return home on June 27, 2019 and that it was most likely from hypothermia after his leg became trapped in a rock where he was found.
Although methadone was found in his system, Mr Archer said with certainty it could not have caused death.
The coroner said it "remains unknown" why Booth was in the area and how he came to be there.
He said Booth's final resting place, north of Pine Island and 300 metres off of Canberra's Centenary Trail, was "remote and unwelcoming".
"There's no evidence he entered the river upstream and drifted to where [his body] was found," Mr Archer said. "It's difficult to reach a satisfactory conclusion as to why he would have walked there."
He said the case was now with ACT police's homicide team and that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) would conduct a review of Nathan Booth's death.
"They will benefit from [materials provided during] the inquest," Mr Archer said.
Why family believe Nathan was murdered
The coroner said the Booth family had been forced to interpret the cause of Nathan's death, and one rumour stated he was killed by unnamed people whom he had wronged in some way.
In his findings, Mr Archer said there was no evidence - gunshots, knife wounds, or trauma causing bone fracture - to suggest Booth was seriously assaulted before he died.
Speaking outside the ACT courts after the hearing, Deanne Booth told journalists the family still believed her brother was murdered because of the location where his body was found.
She said the clothing Booth wore didn't indicate he had stayed in the area through the night.
"No one dies from a broken leg," she said. "Hypothermia - yes, later on ... but the clothing he wore doesn't tell us that he was down there though at night."
While making his findings, Mr Archer said the Booth family had raised concerns which were brought to the attention of the Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker, the Attorney-General Tara Cheyne and the AFP.
"I can do no more," he said.
Matters of concern
The biggest concern raised by the Booth family related to a voluntary program at The Canberra Hospital's methadone clinic where Nathan regularly went and where he was last seen.
Deanne Booth said if a patient like her brother, who was being administered high doses of methadone, didn't turn up to pick up their doses clinic staff should be allowed to let someone know.
"They can't tell you because of the privacy rules," she said.
She said patient confidentiality stopped nurses from alerting his family, their medical centre or Winnunga Nimmityjah health services that Nathan had missed his regular dose.
"[If] they would've flagged family ... we would've looked for him a lot sooner," she said.
Before the inquest concluded on Wednesday, Mr Archer said a chair that was installed at Pine Island Reserve to commemorate Nathan Booth's life was "desecrated" after the inquest began.
"I'm very sorry that happened," he told people in the courtroom.
He said the Booth family was a resilient and determined group, and thanked them for their "bravery and openness" throughout the "long" process.