'We had a dark sense of humour, but not that dark'

DAD INITIALLY THOUGHT HIS WIFE WAS PLAYING JOKE ON HIM WHEN HE FOUND SHE'D PASSED AWAY

- By FIONA CALLIGHAM

A FATHER-OF-TWO has shared his “total shock” after finding his wife had suddenly died in her sleep.

In October 2023, Dale Lockwood returned home from work to discover his 31-year-old wife Ruby, unresponsive.

Initially, he thought Ruby, a police detective, might be playing a prank, but it quickly became clear that the unthinkable had occurred. Ruby, described as “healthy” and “active”, had suffered from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS), a condition where an individual dies suddenly and unexpectedly due to a cardiac arrest.

Ruby had finished a night shift and gone to bed when Dale found her. Dale, now 34, said: “It was shock I think.

“Shock just totally takes over. My initial thought was, ‘Is this a set up, a joke?’

“We had quite a dark sense of humour - but not that dark. I was looking for a hidden camera.

“I was thinking. 'It’s a really awful joke, this can’t be happening.”

Despite calling for an ambulance, medical professionals were unable to determine what had happened. A postmortem examination suggested hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle becomes thickened, as the cause.