There are still too many unknowns to explain Noah Donohoe’s behaviour before his death, experts have told an inquest.
The four psychology and psychiatry professionals say, however, that they have excluded possible explanations such as illegal substance use and psychosis, jurors at Belfast Coroner’s Court heard.
The 14-year-old had been planning to meet with school friends at Cavehill in Belfast after setting out on his bike on Sunday, June 21st, 2020.
He was captured on CCTV cycling through the city centre and then towards the north of the city.
In the final clip, the last footage of Noah before he disappeared, he is seen riding the bike naked.
His naked body was found in an underground water tunnel on June 27th, six days after he left home.
A post-mortem examination found the likely cause of death was drowning.
On Tuesday, psychologist Dr Louise Bowers told the court: “It feels like there is so much that we still don’t know.
“As psychologists we like to have answers and we like to have everything tied up with a bow on top and this one of those cases where it just isn’t like that, we almost know less than we do know.”
Dr Bowers told the court that she only found out recently that Noah had left his house the night before he disappeared, adding: “That appears to have been a little bit overlooked.”
She went on: “Understanding where he went, whether he met anybody, if he did meet anybody, what conversations took place and what happened to his flip flops and headphones, from a psychological perspective and a relational perspective appear quite important to me.
“But I accept that we simply don’t know and it may be that we’re unlikely to ever know the answers to those questions, so I have to live with that uncertainty.
“From a psychological perspective having those answers I think would have helped me a great deal in trying to understand what happened to Noah.”
She told of feeling a “sadness” that she was not able to assist in getting closer to the answers.
Psychiatrist Dr Seena Fazel told jurors that the experts have excluded some possible explanations such as a head injury, psychosis, illegal substance use and other mental disorders.
He added: “At the same time we’re not able to go further and provide a defined explanation.”
Dr Girish Vaidya, a psychiatrist, said Noah’s behaviour “does defy an explanation within the bounds of mental health as we know it”.
“There are a lot of unknowns, and those unknowns add to the difficulty in coming to a conclusion but from what we know so far, from a mental health point of view, there isn’t any evidence to suggest that it was a mental health issue that caused him to behave the way that he did.”
Psychiatrist Dr Richard Church said there was an “absence of any clear mental disorder that might help explain his disappearance and tragic death”.
Dr Church had earlier told jurors that he agreed “there is nothing to support” evidence that Noah took his own life, but added “the possibility isn’t zero”.
He added: “The possibility of something is quite different from the likelihood of something.
“So I wouldn’t want to completely extinguish the possibility of different contributors to these very unusual and largely unexplained events.”
Dr Fazel said that “there isn’t evidence to support that Noah intended to die from suicide”.
