New Richey info?

[tzb]

Originally Posted by mar

He left the car there because it was in the middle of police jurisdictions which meant the investigation and files would be divided and everything will be slower.

Occam's razor and all that - how much knowledge of police jurisdiction would Richey realistically have? - isn't a more obvious interpretation that leaving his car at a notorious suicide spot would mean people would assume him dead and be less likely to hunt him down?

Personally the fact he was living in his car for some time before it was found has always suggested suicide to me. Can anyone explain a good reason for that if he had a plan? Also if he did want to vanish and start a new life, why not take the flight to the USA first? From there he has easy access to two whole continents where virtually no-one would recognise him. He's a high-profile missing person with a bucketload of distinguishing features, and in almost 20 years there's been no credible sightings of him. I just don't buy it, sad to say.

[amnesic]

Although I have a tendency to believe Richey is dead, there is something about his personality which I can't quite put my finger on which makes me think jumping of a bridge is unlikely. I can imagine him wandering around for quite some time not sure about what his next move might be

[mar]

There's no reason for living in the car if he wanted to jump. Probably he was just waiting for something, maybe he wasn't living on the car, he just left some trash there to make people believe that. Or maybe he waited for a plane or a day.
He was not that well-known then outside UK, and then again, he could easily change his looks.
We could be talking about this for months and I wouldn't change my mind or you change yours.

[who's responsible?]

Originally Posted by tzb

Personally the fact he was living in his car for some time before it was found has always suggested suicide to me. Can anyone explain a good reason for that if he had a plan?

I can't think of any good reason - if you're basically walking away, you get on with it. For me, my decision was made weeks before I acted on it. All the navel-gazing and pondering was over long before I actually left. For me it was easy to remain hidden in plain sight, but then I am just an average person, my face wasn't all over the press or TV. This doesn't tie in with living in your car for two weeks, that implies a lot of indecision. The "Richey had a plan" thing - isn't that mainly due to people commenting on what books he'd been reading, along with obscure references to the stuff he left in the box in the Embassy hotel? It seems more impulsive - driving back to Cardiff, dumping his stuff, then off again, then sitting in a car park for days and not knowing that if you don't run your engine the battery goes flat? It seems more like he needed to think, to try and come to a decision on what to do.

[tzb]

Agreed, that amount of indecision, the final location of the car and the lack of evidence of him after that point despite his high profile gives me my answer, but who knows.

[Let_Robinson_Sing]

As far as I'm concerned now that the courts have declared him legally dead I have no other option but to think the same unless it is proven that he is still alive.

[mar]

I think I'll leave my participation on this thread here for today. It's not that I don't enjoy talking about all those theories, I do most of the time, it's just that some days it really depresses me. Not the theories themselves, the subject. Not in the best mood today.

[who's responsible?]

I don't see it as depressing mar. Whatever actually happened, it was what he had to do. I can't really explain this adequately, but I'll give it a go.
What I did was wrong, I did a lot of damage to a lot of people through an act of complete selfishness - it was one step short of suicide (which in my opinion is TOTAL selfishness). Yet (this is the mixed emotions bit for me) despite the harm I did, I still believe that I didn't have any choice. I HAD to leave my old life behind one way or the other, and (this is the bit I struggle with) the first three months after I disappeared I barely spoke to another human being apart from essential interactions like shopping for food. I needed those months of silence more than I can explain. It was the time I needed to heal, to get myself together, to rest. The feeling of complete freedom that I experienced then (my life was pretty fucked till that point) in those few months was beautiful beyond compare, like rebirth in a way.What I did was wrong, but I had no choice, and that period in my life I look back on with fond memories. Fond memories of emptiness and tranquillity, (there IS beauty doing nothing at all sometimes), just me a TV and an endless stream of library books. I honestly hope that Richey experienced that freedom, however briefly.

[Takk]

It's hard to know his state of mind at the time - it's easy to analyse all his actions logically, but he may not have been acting logically.

[bachelorette]

The living in the car, the location in which it was found, no convincing sightings ever... All of that sounds rather final to me.
But what makes me inclined to believe that Richie is dead is the fact that he never got in touch with his family. Yes, maybe he hated his bandmates by then as some say (I do not believe it!) - but HOW could he put his parents and sister through this agony? For decades? Yes, I understand irrational, impulsive urges to get away/end it all. And I can imagine how hard it would be to get back in touch. But he must have seen pictures of his sister crying over him every year for the past 2 decades, IF he is still alive. How could he do that - without at least letting them know he's okay, even if he wants to stay away?
And no, I do not believe Rachel or the Manics are deceiving the public and know where Richie is, as some people suggest. You cannot fake such a continuing trauma.

[handbag]

How do you know he hasn't been in touch with his family or the band? It's not like they'd tell anyone if he has.

[who's responsible?]

Originally Posted by bachelorette

HOW could he put his parents and sister through this agony? For decades?

Because every single day it gets a little bit harder to pick up the phone. You think about it, then put it off as you don't know what reaction you'll get, then before you realise it another year has passed and the gap grows ever wider. I couldn't have picked up the phone without that conversation with the police liaison officer. Once I knew what the response would be, I didn't need to think twice.

[handbag]

But you're not him. You can't speak for everyone in a similar situation to yourself.

[bachelorette]

Originally Posted by handbag

How do you know he hasn't been in touch with his family or the band? It's not like they'd tell anyone if he has.

Because I cannot imagine Rachel (or the band) faking the trauma they display every time they speak of him.

@WR I'm not even suggesting he should call them himself, just call Missing Persons or the police and let them deliver the message.

Though, truly, I think this is moot point, I do not believe that he lives in Pontypridd with coloured contact lenses. Or in the Alaskan wilderness.

[handbag]

I don't think Rachel does fake it. If she's thinking about the years they didn't know, she'd get upset.

All everybody's doing in this thread is guessing at what happened. Nobody knows anything. I said he might've been in touch with someone. I don't know if he has and I'm not arrogant enough to believe that what I say is how it is.

Nobody knows.

That reddit post sounds a bunch of wank though.