The Slatest

Report: Nurse Who Was Duped by Royal Prank Hanged Self

An undated family photograph of Jacintha Saldanha

Photo by STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images.

All signs continue to point to suicide as the cause of death for Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who fell for a now-infamous radio prank and patched through a pair of Australian DJs to Kate Middleton’s bedside last week.

Unnamed sources tell Sky News that the 46-year-old mother of two was found hanged in her room, something that suggests “a very determined bid to kill herself, rather than what some people describe as a cry for help,” according to the network.

There have also been multiple reports that Saldanha left a suicide note for her family. The contents of that letter have not yet been made public but they are expected to shed at least some light on why she decided to take her own life. Police have yet to announce a direct connection between her death and the radio prank, but that distinction has largely been lost in the media frenzy and public anger toward the radio station that has taken place since news of her death was first reported.

Officials in England have reportedly finished the post-mortem to establish the cause of her death. Those results won’t officially be released until tomorrow morning, but from the looks of things it would be a shock if the result is anything other than suicide. Still, even then we’ll only have part of the picture and may very well never know all of the factors that may have contributed to her death.

This post, originally published at 11:14 a.m., was updated at 11:19 a.m. for the sake of clarity.