A nanny working for a former Government minister died after an accidental fall on a rocky shoreline, a coroner has ruled.

Acting Magistrate Justin Williams said Herminda Villareal died on August 22, 1998 while fishing on the rocks near Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons' South Shore home.

"I rule this as an accident. To her surviving relatives and friends, this court extends its condolences,'' Mr. Williams said.

"I rule that she died having had an accident on the shoreline near 30 South Shore Road, Hamilton Parish. It is surmised that she may have suffered a heart attack and there is no evidence of any other person or struggle.'' Mr. Williams had heard that Ms Villareal -- a Filipino known to everyone as Minda -- often fished from the rocks during her weekends off from work.

Dr. Gibbons saw Ms Villareal fishing between 9.30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on August 22 and remarked to himself that it was dangerous to do so with high surf.

He continued preparing to canvass for election and later prepared for a wedding reception that afternoon.

On his return that evening, he assumed Ms Villareal was not at home and noted her bucket still in the same spot, but felt it was too dangerous to recover.

The following day, he assumed she was at church. But that afternoon, while in the Finance Ministry offices, his wife called to say the woman was missing.

Dr. Gibbons contacted Police and upon his arrival home noted nothing was amiss in her room. He identified Ms Villareal's body the following morning.

Earlier that day, charter fisherman Clifton Lambert found Ms Villareal's body about a mile south-east of Castle Roads.

In getting the body aboard his charter, Striker One , Ms Villareal's nose was cut on a barnacle on the boat and bled.

Retired pathologist at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, John Winwick later explained to Mr. Williams that if a person dies quickly, sometimes blood does not clot enough and the body will look as if it is bleeding.

Dr. Winwick, reading a hospital staffer's autopsy report, said Ms Villareal showed signs of hardening of the arteries and had died from drowning.

The investigating officer, Michael Harvey, said in his conclusion Ms Villareal was fishing "as she always did'' on the southwest portion of the Gibbons property.

"However she had an accident and she fell and hit the right side of her face on the rocks,'' P.c. Harvey said. "It is possible that she suffered a heart attack prior to her hitting her face.''