The death of an electronic consultant who was found half-naked in his home with the gas running on his cooker still remains a mystery, an inquest heard last Thursday.

Police discovered Alvin Mountfield, of Chantry Lane in London Colney, on June 20 this year after following up his neighbour’s concerns when he had not been seen for several weeks.

When they forced entry into the property they noticed a strong smell of gas and a “hissing” noise coming from an unlit gas cooker and found Alvin crouched down on the floor with just a jacket on upside down.

Police officers reportedly found it difficult to move around as there were lots of items cluttering the bachelor’s home and initally they struggled to identify the body as it had heavily decomposed.

A post-mortem revealed there was no sign of excessive gas inhalation in the 67-year-old’s body but that he had an enlarged heart, an indication of heart disease, while a pathologist could not pinpoint the official cause of death and noted it would be best left to the coroner.

Summarising, assistant coroner Edward Solomons said: “As to the cause of death I really don’t know. I can’t come to a conclusion as to what caused the death so I’m going to make an open verdict, as the medical cause of death is unascertainable.”

He added that the date of death recorded was the date Alvin was found as it was unknown when he actually passed away.