Medical experts were unable to determine a cause of death for a chef whose body was found in the bedroom of his Douglas flat.

Gavin Anthony Alway’s body was discovered by a neighbour and his landlady on December 27.

The inquest heard a post mortem examination by Dr Christopher Clague had failed to reveal any definite cause of death. There was no sign of drug use, no alcohol in his body, no sign of a heart attack, brain haemorrhage or other catastrophic illness and nothing significantly wrong with any of the major organs. Nor was there any evidence of violence or injury.

A statement from Mr Alway’s landlady, Roseanne Williams, said the 41-year-old had been a tenant since 2010. She said her last contact with him was on December 7 when she called at the flat to replace some curtains.

On that occasion he was ill in bed so although they spoke, she didn’t see him. On December 18 the rent was due, so the following day she had messaged him using the social media site Facebook. The message was received but never read.

A few days later, on Christmas Eve, she sent another message to see if he needed any credit putting on his electricity meter. Again, the message was marked as delivered but not read.

On Boxing Day, she noticed an unopened parcel and a letter, which she left in the porch of the flat but it wasn’t until the following day she went into the flat, along with neighbour Stephen Richardson who discovered Mr Alway was dead.

Coroner John Needham said though Mr Alway drank, smoked heavily and had a chronic cough, there was nothing to indicate death was due to anything other than natural causes, sometime between December 7 and 19.

Offering condolences, he said: ‘This will be a shock and a tragedy to his family.’