Surprised that I didn’t hear this story earlier in the year. Absolutely bizarre and saddening.
I get that they tried a bit to find out if the locals/Gardaí had seen him but it’s a bit odd for the family to have just stopped looking.
Twenty fucking years and ‘gone off to England’ was enough for them to go ‘shucks’.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever read. Fell off the face of the planet for 20 years and it was barely even noticed.
If his siblings are mostly based in the UK and they thought he returned to the UK, why didn’t they try and track him down..it reads like his sister who was in Australia did more to find him from the other side of the world than the ones supposedly in the same country as him..I’m trying not to be judgemental to the family, perhaps there were reasons they weren’t close to him but I do feel they could have done more. I guess I also have to remember it was a time before mobile phones and social media..and probably a lot more common and easier to lose touch with people
Terribly sad to think about.
Poor fella. May he rest in peace.
It is intrinsically saddening to know that this poor individual lay there decomposing, whilst people continued to go about their daily business walking past literally meters away, of what looks to be a fairly central street/side street in the town. He seemed to have lived a somewhat fragmented but decent life, that’s no way to go. I only hope that he went peacefully, and wasn’t suffering or crying out for help to folk who weren’t there
They didn’t fear enough to check in?
20 years. The only place eqas boarded up. Presumably while he was still inside. How awful.
The council had a vacant property for 20 years and seemingly never even checked on it.
Families differ in their closeness and it’s not unknown for brothers or sisters to disappear off to England never to be heard of again. Particularly in the social situation of old Ireland. We should be careful of thinking the way we are with our families is the way everyone is. And remember older generations were easily intimidated and regarded authorities as gods.
Which brings me to the professionals in this case. It sounds like a missing person report that got the missing person treatment: they’ll turn up sort of approach. It leaves a lot to be desired and really needs to be revised.
They didn’t fear for him for the last 22 years so let’s not pretend we care now! They’re just embarrassed and trying to save face.
I’d imagine they had a bad relationship with him and were barely in contact with him before he passed which is why they didn’t go looking very much.
The coat on top of him on the bed strikes me as odd. Like someone else did that or he was fighting a fever that gave him chills.
[deleted]
Reminded me of the Joyce Vincent case in Tottenham, a woman in her 30’s lay dead on the floor of her flat over Wood Green shopping centre for almost 3 years, she was in the process of wrapping Christmas presents at the time of her death. The TV was still on, tuned to BBC1. She had a decent job earlier in life, has a history of distancing herself from people she once knew.
Very sad. This was already in the news a good while back.
A person I know went away for about 4 weeks. He never told everyone he was going away. He has a small circle. I rang him to see where he was. He was always out and about so his absence would be noted. He told me one or two people he regularly met several times a week around town ( whk he thought of as friends ) and who had his phone number and WhatsApp (which was set to private so people wouldn’t know active or not) and who he knew for years never made contact to see where he was, was he alive or dead, was he sick etc
He told me he didn’t tell them he was going away.
He said he was very shocked they never contacted him. Its as if they just couldn’t care. He asked me what J thought were these people really his friends when they never checked in on hkm to see where he was.
. Its amazing how people can be forgotten so quickly. My friend questioned if these people who didn’t try to contact him were actually his friends or not. What would your views be. He was upset as he regarded them as friends he would bump into about 4 times a week and chat to for about half and hour.
15 comments
Surprised that I didn’t hear this story earlier in the year. Absolutely bizarre and saddening.
I get that they tried a bit to find out if the locals/Gardaí had seen him but it’s a bit odd for the family to have just stopped looking.
Twenty fucking years and ‘gone off to England’ was enough for them to go ‘shucks’.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever read. Fell off the face of the planet for 20 years and it was barely even noticed.
If his siblings are mostly based in the UK and they thought he returned to the UK, why didn’t they try and track him down..it reads like his sister who was in Australia did more to find him from the other side of the world than the ones supposedly in the same country as him..I’m trying not to be judgemental to the family, perhaps there were reasons they weren’t close to him but I do feel they could have done more. I guess I also have to remember it was a time before mobile phones and social media..and probably a lot more common and easier to lose touch with people
Terribly sad to think about.
Poor fella. May he rest in peace.
It is intrinsically saddening to know that this poor individual lay there decomposing, whilst people continued to go about their daily business walking past literally meters away, of what looks to be a fairly central street/side street in the town. He seemed to have lived a somewhat fragmented but decent life, that’s no way to go. I only hope that he went peacefully, and wasn’t suffering or crying out for help to folk who weren’t there
They didn’t fear enough to check in?
20 years. The only place eqas boarded up. Presumably while he was still inside. How awful.
The council had a vacant property for 20 years and seemingly never even checked on it.
Families differ in their closeness and it’s not unknown for brothers or sisters to disappear off to England never to be heard of again. Particularly in the social situation of old Ireland. We should be careful of thinking the way we are with our families is the way everyone is. And remember older generations were easily intimidated and regarded authorities as gods.
Which brings me to the professionals in this case. It sounds like a missing person report that got the missing person treatment: they’ll turn up sort of approach. It leaves a lot to be desired and really needs to be revised.
They didn’t fear for him for the last 22 years so let’s not pretend we care now! They’re just embarrassed and trying to save face.
I’d imagine they had a bad relationship with him and were barely in contact with him before he passed which is why they didn’t go looking very much.
The coat on top of him on the bed strikes me as odd. Like someone else did that or he was fighting a fever that gave him chills.
[deleted]
Reminded me of the Joyce Vincent case in Tottenham, a woman in her 30’s lay dead on the floor of her flat over Wood Green shopping centre for almost 3 years, she was in the process of wrapping Christmas presents at the time of her death. The TV was still on, tuned to BBC1. She had a decent job earlier in life, has a history of distancing herself from people she once knew.
Very sad. This was already in the news a good while back.
A person I know went away for about 4 weeks. He never told everyone he was going away. He has a small circle. I rang him to see where he was. He was always out and about so his absence would be noted. He told me one or two people he regularly met several times a week around town ( whk he thought of as friends ) and who had his phone number and WhatsApp (which was set to private so people wouldn’t know active or not) and who he knew for years never made contact to see where he was, was he alive or dead, was he sick etc
He told me he didn’t tell them he was going away.
He said he was very shocked they never contacted him. Its as if they just couldn’t care. He asked me what J thought were these people really his friends when they never checked in on hkm to see where he was.
. Its amazing how people can be forgotten so quickly. My friend questioned if these people who didn’t try to contact him were actually his friends or not. What would your views be. He was upset as he regarded them as friends he would bump into about 4 times a week and chat to for about half and hour.