![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2_Screen-Shot-2025-07-15-at-133326.jpg\")
Sean Stephen and his wife Julie (Image: Facebook)<\/p>\nJulie Stephen says she’s “baffled” as to how Edinburgh council employees failed to notice a dead body in the bathroom of their City Chambers building for almost a weekSean Stephen and his wife Julie (Image: Facebook)<\/p>\n
A grieving wife “can’t understand” how her husband’s body lay unnoticed in a council toilet<\/a> for six days.<\/p>\n Julie Stephen, 47, was speaking to her husband Sean on the phone when he entered a cubicle at Edinburgh’s City Chambers because he started feeling unwell. But the 38-year-old failed to emerge from the building, with Julie reporting him missing some hours later on July 1.<\/p>\n Julie says “it baffles me” that the security guards, cleaners, and receptionist at the council building had failed to notice a dead body<\/a> in the toilet for almost a week.<\/p>\n Shortly after his body was discovered, Julie – who married Sean back in 1999 – took to social media to slam the council. “Shame on Edinburgh Council,” she wrote. “Left you inside their building for a week. You could’ve been saved.”<\/p>\n When Julie contacted police that evening, she was told he couldn’t be registered as a missing person because of his age. Without their support, Julie and Sean’s loved ones spent a week searching and putting flyers up in shops.<\/p>\n Julie told the Daily Record<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s CCTV footage of him on the phone to me walking up the Royal Mile and into the council building.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was healthy but said he was feeling dizzy and sick. He said he was going to get a taxi. I came off the phone when he was going to do the toilet. That was the last time I spoke to him.<\/p>\n \u201cCould he have been saved? These are questions which will be in my head for rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWe went searching everywhere. We were two minutes away from him, we didn\u2019t expect him to be in a locked building. When they found him his body was so decomposed. I couldn\u2019t even see his body.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to give his toothbrush for DNA. This could happen to anybody. It\u2019s horrible, it\u2019s torture.\u201d<\/p>\n Julie said the ordeal has left her “emotionally drained” and she’s asking for help to “bring his body home and lay him to rest”.<\/p>\n \u201cI will get the answers but right now I just need to lay him to rest”, she said.<\/p>\n A Police Scotland<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cAt 9.20pm on Tuesday, 1 July, 2025 we received a report of concern for a 38-year-old man in the Edinburgh area who failed to make an pre-arranged appointment. Enquiries were carried out to trace him and he was traced deceased on Monday, 7 July in the High Street area of Edinburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n A Council spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to assist Police Scotland with their inquiries and can\u2019t comment any further at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/518393500_24025829147070712_7967019926299368831_njpeg.jpg\")
Sean was described as a “gentle giant”(Image: Facebook)<\/p>\n