A woman found her husband’s body in woods behind two Hove schools when she went looking for him after he failed to come home from a football game the night before.
The body of John Osborne, 51, was found by his wife Kathryn on land behind West Blatchington Primary School and the King’s School, by a footpath off Downland Drive.
Mr Osborne, a company director and father, of Queen Victoria Avenue, Hove, died on Tuesday 20 January, an inquest was told.
He was a director of a consultancy business, Cellars Direct, along with his wife Kate.
The inquest into the death of Mr Osborne was opened at the West Sussex, Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court, in Horsham, on Tuesday (27 January).
The coroner, Joseph Turner, adjourned the inquest until Thursday 7 May when it is expected to resume at the coroner’s court at Woodvale, in Brighton.