THE naked body of a Sandbach woman was discovered in a canal, hours after she claimed to have seen a vision of her dead parents.

Linda Carter, aged 49, of Ettiley Avenue, was discovered drowned in the Trent and Mersey Canal off Elton Road on November 5 last year.

A Crewe inquest heard Mrs Carter had suffered from depression, which started in 1986 when she had a miscarriage.

Since that time she had taken numerous overdoses of her medication and in March of 2002 had slashed her wrists.

Her husband Eric, aged 57, a forklift truck driver, slept downstairs on the night before her death because of rib injuries.

He said: "My wife came downstairs screaming, saying she had seen her mum and dad - her mum and dad are dead.

"I told her don't be silly, or words to that effect. I think she must have hallucinated it or something. She went back upstairs."

Mr Carter found his wife gone from the house when he woke in the morning, but assumed she had gone to her cleaning job.

Her daughter Gemma described a phone call from her mum at about 2.20am that night: "She said she had seen her mum and dad at the end of her bed.

"She seemed really hyper. She spooked me a lot and I was really scared by it."

Postwoman Carol Laurie wept as she told how Mrs Carter jumped out naked in front of her car as she drove to work on Elton Road at around 5am.

She said: "I saw this figure in front of me. At first I thought it was just a shadow, but I got closer and a naked woman jumped out in front of the car at me.

"She just jumped out waving her arms at me. It really frightened me and I drove around her."

Mrs Laurie contacted the police.

Beverley Astbury was walking her dog along the canal at around 6.30am.

She said: "I noticed a body lying face up in the canal. I was totally shocked and did not examine the body."

Mrs Astbury flagged down a van in the road and emergency services were called.

The inquest heard how Mrs Carter had taken a high dosage of medication before her death, but a post mortem found the cause of death to be drowning.

Cheshire Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded an open verdict saying it was not clear whether she had drowned accidentally or had taken her own life.