A WORCESTER shopworker, whose body was found in the River Severn at Gloucester three months after he disappeared, drowned after splitting up with his girlfriend.

But the Gloucester coroner recorded an open verdict into Einstein Ellis's death, saying there was no way of telling why or at what point during his three-month absence he came to be in the river. Nor would anyone ever know where he fell in.

Einstein - born Mark Anthony Taylor - aged 36, of College House, Barbourne Road, Worcester, disappeared last November 2, shortly after the break-up of his five-year relationship with girlfriend Rachel Bayliss.

He was found this year on Wednesday, February 16, on the banks of the Severn near farmland at Hempsted, Gloucester, by walker Anthony Rogers.

At an inquest at the city's Shire Hall, his mother Yvonne Ellis, aged 56, told the court that when he split with his girlfriend on Monday, November 15, Ellis's mood went downhill.

"He wasn't the Einstein I knew," Yvonne said.

Yvonne called him the following Saturday, and was the last person to talk to him alive ."He sounded low," she said. "He was upset and said he didn't want to talk."

Rachel Bayliss said that in the last six months of their relationship she had started seeing another man. "We parted on friendly terms," she said.

His GP Margaret Keeble said that Einstein had appeared at the surgery on Thursday, November 18 and told her that he was "thinking of ending it all" but later took that back and she concluded that he was not clinically depressed.

Pathologist Dr John McCarthy said Einstein had a knapsack on his back containing bottles, most of which contained alcohol. He said drowning was the most likely cause of death, but he could not be certain because the body had been submerged so long.

Gloucester Coroner Alan Crickmore said: "It is rather touching that his last conversation was with his mother."

But, Mr Crickmore said there was questions, which would remain unanswered: "He had been in the water for some considerable time. The puzzle starts there - where did Mr Ellis enter the water? Nobody saw him enter.

"We know a great deal about his life - we know nothing about those crucial moments."

when he entered the water and drowned."

His sister reported him missing the following Tuesday.

A search of his flat showed that all his personal photos had been laid out on his bed.