Aston Martin used in suicide (UK)

Gym owner, Gerald Mellin decapitated himself in his Aston Martin DB7, an inquest has heard. Mr Mellin was found dead in his car on Mumbles Road near the junction of Sketty Lane, in Swansea.

A passing ambulance alerted police, and a section of the road was cordoned off as officers began a gruesome investigation.

54 year old Mr Mellin, who owned the Body Talk Fitness Centre, in Neath, Wales, with his recently estranged wife Mirrielle, had run up massive debts and suffered from psychological problems since childhood, the inquest heard.

On the day before his death, Mirrielle, who gave her maiden name Evans, had taken him to court as he had put the household bills in her name.

She said she was awarded an extra �100 per week, but had no idea of the scale of Mr Mellin's financial problems until after his death.

She also found out later that he had cancelled all his life insurance policies. Ms Evans described her five-year marriage to Mr Mellin, a long-term steroid user, as absolutely horrendous most of the time.

She said on one occasion he had taken a knife from the kitchen drawer and cut his arm all the way round. "It looked like someone was being murdered - there was so much blood," said Ms Evans. "The ambulance would not come without the police, because of his violent nature."

"I absolutely refused," said Ms Evans. "He started having another tantrum. He opened the boot of the car and said, 'There is my rope - that's what I'm going to kill myself with'. I said: 'Grow up, and give me the rope'."

Later that evening Mr Mellin, who was staying in hotels at the time, texted her saying, 'Congratulations XXX'.

The details are shocking. That morning Mellin tied one end of a long rope to a tree in a parking lot and the other around his neck. He then got in the driver seat of his open Aston Martin DB7 roadster and accelerated away onto a main road. When the rope snapped taut, his head was severed clear off his body. A short suicide note was later found in the corpse's pocket.

Mellin, who reportedly had a history of steroid abuse and depression, was going through a contentious divorce from his second wife when he decided to take his own life.

"He would say suicidal thoughts," Mirielle Mellin told the BBC, "but I never actually believed that he would do anything. It was always a cry for help with Gerald. That's why I find it hard to believe this time."

Considering the extreme nature of the suicide, the former Mrs. Mellin surely isn't alone in her disbelief.