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#1
13-07-2017, 10:12
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Shelagh McDonald - Implications for Richey
 So I'm at work supposed to be writing something on Pussy Riot but scrolling through Facebook and come across THIS clickbait about a Scottish songstress who supposedly disappeared only to re-emerge 30 years later to discover she had become somewhat of a cult icon in her absence. Seemed like a fairly unlikely story, but it turns out Shelagh McDonald did indeed have a bad LSD trip causing her to take a relatively spontaneous decision to remove herself from the public eye leading to an apparent 'disappearance' unbeknownst to her. She gives her account HERE in The Guardian. Obviously you can't help draw parallels with Richey's disappearance. Given that he gave the lyrics to what would become JFPL, gave various people apparent leaving gifts plus some sort of love letter there does seem to be a degree of forward planning to it. But given his fragile mental state, the fact he appears to have lived in his car for a number of days and the fact he left on a day he was supposed to be going to the States with JDB I can't help feel like this was a man without clear direction or an idea of what they were doing or where they were going. Given that we live in a world where there is CCTV everywhere and its impossible to do anything without a debit/credit card, the lack of any positive sightings in so many years plus the relatively recent decision by the Edwards family to have him declare dead it does look increasingly like there will be no decisive conclusion as to what happened, with the most likely answer being that he chose to take his own life. However, just reading this story now I can't help but hope maybe he is out there somewhere not realising just how badly his friends and family miss him.
__________________
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being" - Carl Jung 
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#2
13-07-2017, 18:22
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That is interesting, people do disappear surprisingly often.
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#3
14-07-2017, 05:27
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A couple of thoughts though. CCTV. The images from CCTV are so grainy and sometimes downright shit (I've seen Crimewatch) that I don't think anyone could be recognised on those things unless they had one eye or something pretty unusual about their appearance. Also, the police haven't got the time to monitor CCTV unless there's an event they need to check out. Nobody knows if Richey's even in this country, plus I'd imagine he'd made himself unrecognisable as well as being a couple of decades older. Nobody even knows what to look for. Just a hunch that he skipped off abroad with a new identity which is still achievable, but in the 90s moreso. As for his feelings towards his family, IF he was travelling/using another identity, if he ever returned he'd be up for fraud. Not something I'd fancy coming back to. I really do think he's still in the land of the living and his disappearance was planned. He's a smart guy who really could get away with hiding away for so long. Declaring him as "presumed dead" was more of a move to make managing his finances easier. I mean, when that happened the ball started rolling to get his flat on the market etc. He's obviously been keeping out of trouble because with his DNA now on the register, if he'd had any skirmishes with the law, there'd be a match and he'd be located. That's presuming he's alive, which I think he is even though I have no proof. It's not even wishful thinking, only 20 plus years of mulling it over. Still, I don't think we'll ever know. My heart goes out to his mum and sister but he probably couldn't let them know he was okay even if he wanted to. Again, ta for the article. Very interesting.
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#4
14-07-2017, 19:35
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Why do you think he would be up for fraud? I can't think how Richey could be said to have benefited from his disappearance, or is there some legal technically I've not heard of?
On a related note, has anyone ever looked at the police missing persons database? Don't if you're easily upset - it has details (and sometimes photos) of unidentified deceased people. Mostly apparently homeless people, but also some suicides - to think no one will miss you and be proved correct is just heartbreaking.
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#5
14-07-2017, 23:09
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There's the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 where using a forged passport, birth certificate, (others), and credit cards etc using fake documents is illegal. I'm far from a legal expert and it'll be different in other countries (like on Border Security Australia where they only deport someone carrying a forged passport back to the country where they have residency). The penalties here https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk...erly-obtained/ aren't too harsh and worth a shot if I felt like getting away from my own life. Taking his mental condition into account at the time he'd probably get off with it anyway.
Maybe he doesn't want to come back to avoid forever having to explain himself and the attention. I've never been a missing person, so I can't even pretend to be in that frame of mind. Is there a point where a person feels that they just can't come back? I read How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found and I'm still clueless about the answer to that one. I'm not sure I even trust the case stories in that book because it's mostly men who're sick of their wives, move to another US state and have a great time as "someone else". I'd like someone to write a book that's not so black and white. I look at the Missing Persons database sometimes when locals go missing but I've never seen the unidentified found deceased. That really is tragic. Have you ever watched the documentary "The Bridge"? Every jumper from the Golden Gate during the year it was filmed was identified and relatives and friends talk about those people. The unidentified people on the Missing People website really were totally alone. I can't even write any more because it's so heartbreaking as you say, Glass Angel.
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#6
23-07-2017, 18:48
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-And.../dp/0571215602
__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron 'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield) "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson
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#7
28-07-2017, 01:51
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#8
28-07-2017, 19:26
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Perhaps I misinterpreted the use of the word 'implications', but McDonald's story has next to no relevance or significance in my view, given the major differences between the two disappearances. Whilst it's a very interesting story in itself, I really think there's little point in mentioning it in this context.
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#9
28-07-2017, 23:50
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 Maybe there's a little similarity in the mythologising of a missing musician though
__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron 'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield) "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson
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#10
24-07-2017, 08:40
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Heartbreaking situation all round.
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#11
24-07-2017, 12:10
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I agree that the lack of recent sightings doesn't mean anything. He could look very different by now, have a beard, some chubbiness, or even have become a gym bunny. Tats could have been removed. He could be sipping coffee in Cardiff station right now and not be recognised.
I did sort of stop hoping he'd re-emerge when I heard of the death of his father. Enough has happened now for him to have had a change of heart and it would be possible to reconnect with loved ones without coming back into the public eye. Though with how Rachel is so openly campaigning I'm sure that hasn't happened.
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#12
09-02-2018, 19:38
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*ultimately pointless conjecture bump*
 It appears there were a missing 12 hours in the investigation due to misinterpreting the Seven Bridge Toll receipt: New information uncovered in Richey Edwards case https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...eet-preachers? That must be massively frustrating to discover after all this time. Does this debunk the taxi driver story referenced in Everything?
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#13
09-02-2018, 21:34
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#14
11-02-2018, 23:08
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I find it incredible that such a fundamental bit of information has been wrong all this time. Can't imagine what a gut punch that must've been to realise.
__________________
Please, he prayed, now - A gray disk, the colour of Chiba sky. Now - Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding - And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach. And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face.
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#15
11-02-2018, 23:52
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I don't know how it can help at this stage apart from showing it's still possible to uncover something factual after all this time which must offer hope but it's information that may, may have proved more helpful back at the time and that as you say must have been a heavy blow
__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron 'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield) "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson
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