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An inquest was held at the Coach and Horses at Hilsea, near Portsmouth, by Mr Longcroft, on the body of Jonas Over, of Easton, near this city, found dead on Monday in a field of standing oats at Hilsea, about 100 yards from a footpath leading from Cosham to Landport. The body, from its advanced state of decomposition, exhibited a sad and distressing spectacle, having lain in the situation in which it was found ten or eleven days. The poor fellow had been engaged for some weeks on the premises of Mr. Baker at Wymering but had completed and left his work there on the 1st of June and had since been employed at the erection of some new buildings at Cosham, and was last seen there on the 13th inst. No direct evidence appearing as to the cause of his death, a verdict of Found Dead was returned, and the body interred the same evening in Wymering church-yard. Whatever may have occasioned the death of the poor fellow, there is reason to hope, from the easy position in which the body was found, that it was occasioned by no act of violence.
— Hampshire Chronicle, Monday 01 July, 1839