Inquest into the death of Jean-Louis Langlois
Deceased
Jean-Louis Langlois
Demographics
50y, male
Date of death
1996-12-31
Finding date
2023-07-20
Cause of death
Immersion, with alcohol intoxication and doxepin toxicity being significant factors contributing to the death
AI-generated summary
Jean-Louis Langlois, a 50-year-old French-Australian man with significant mental health issues, alcohol dependence, and chronic social difficulties, was found deceased on Wanda Beach in January 1997. He died from immersion with contributing factors of alcohol intoxication and doxepin (tricyclic antidepressant) toxicity. His body was identified only in 2021 through advanced fingerprint technology, despite his fingerprints being on file since 1989. The 24-year delay in identification was due to poor quality 1997 fingerprint records, limitations of 1980s NAFIS technology, and failure to manually file his 1989 fingerprints using the Henry Classification System. The coroner could not determine where or how he entered the water, or whether his death was intentional or accidental.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Contributing factors
- Alcohol intoxication
- Doxepin toxicity
- Mental health deterioration
- Alcohol dependence
- Social isolation and itinerant lifestyle
- Financial difficulties
- Chronic unemployment
- Unknown circumstances of water entry
Coroner's recommendations
- Fingerprint Operations to continue reviewing historic missing persons fingerprint records using modern NAFIS technology
- Fingerprint records of deceased persons to be retained indefinitely on NAFIS for searching via future technical capability upgrades
- Transition to digital fingerprint capture (Livescan) and modern NAFIS systems to prevent future missed identifications
Full text
Related cases
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —