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An investigation in England has formally stated that a body dumped off the Cumbrian coast in October 1986 was that of Patrick Healy, a 70-year-old Dublin man who was last seen at his home in Cabra on September 20, 1986. same year. .
The investigation, which was carried out remotely due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, found that Healy, a married father of three and a grandfather of eight, had drowned at sea.
Patrick Healy’s granddaughter, Alison, who was representing her family, dialed the investigation number which was conducted by conference call.
The investigation was chaired by Cumbrian Senior Coroner Kally Cheema, who said he was personally pleased to be able to formally declare Mr. Healy’s identification.
More details emerged in today’s investigation into strong evidence from 1986 that the body dumped in England was that of Patrick Healy, who had previously worked at CIÉ.
Today’s investigation heard that his late wife Josephine was shown photographs in 1986 of body laundry washed in Cumbria.
Josephine Healy insisted that the clothes were her husband’s. In particular, she was drawn to a photograph of the only shoe that was still on the body when it was recovered.
Ms. Healy had said at the time that she recognized that the shoe was tied in a particular way that her husband tied her shoes.
The investigation revealed that a post-mortem examination on October 22, 1986, found other clues that indicated that the body was that of an Irishman.
The body was fully clothed, and the man wore a brown patterned tie, which was labeled “Designed by Kingstone of Dublin.” Irish £ 10 and £ 5 notes and Irish coins were also found in the man’s pants.
Today’s investigation heard that the Patrick Healy case was considered a possible coincidence in 1986 but, after being in the water for some time, the body had decomposed and a facial recognition was not possible.
Forensic science at that time was very limited and there were no advances in DNA technology. The body was buried unidentified in November 1986 at Whitehaven in Cumbria and an investigation the following year found that the body had not been identified and the cause of death was unquestionable.
In today’s investigation, Coroner Kally Cheema outlined the legal process he had engaged in to overturn the findings of the original investigation and conduct a new investigation.
Speaking in today’s investigation, Patrick Healy’s granddaughter Alison said her grandfather had been a huge soccer fan and liked to walk and garden.
He was last seen by his wife Josephine at their home on St Attracta Road in Cabra on the morning of September 20, 1986 when he indicated that he intended to head for the Dublin coast.
Gardaí had already been reported as a missing person when, on the morning of Wednesday 22 October 1986, along 265 kilometers across the Irish Sea, a woman walking her dog at Silecroft in Cumbria saw a body in the beach.
Today’s investigation learned of the important work done by the Cumbrian Police in 1986 in connection with the case. The investigation also heard that the clothing found on the body and the original samples taken in 1986 had not been kept, furthermore, when gardaí began a cold case review in recent years, no paperwork had been saved from the police contact from Cumbria in 1986.
However, modern science was finally able to identify the body that was resting in a plot in the Whitehaven cemetery. The process of exhuming the body began when Healy’s family contacted authorities in Cumbria in recent years to request the exhumation of the unidentified body and the taking of a DNA sample to compare with the Healy family.
The coroner said the exhumation had originally been scheduled for earlier this year, but was delayed due to Covid-19.
However, on July 15 of this year the exhumation finally took place. The coroner thanked the experts who traveled from London to Cumbria to carry out the exhumation. The process was very delicate because three other bodies had also been buried in the same plot.
A DNA sample was taken from the body and examined by a scientist at Cellmark laboratories in England, who confirmed that the body was indeed that of Patrick Healy.
At the conclusion of today’s proceedings, the coroner expressed his condolences to Alison and all of Patrick Healy’s loved ones. The coroner said she was pleased that Mr. Healy’s body has been repatriated to Ireland.
Alison said in the investigation that her family has held a cremation service in Dublin and is waiting for Patrick’s ashes to be delivered to them when he is later buried with his wife Josephine.
Two of Patrick’s children are still living, including his daughter Mary, who gave her DNA to Gardaí, helping to solve the 34-year-old mystery. Patrick is also survived by his grandchildren.
The coroner thanked John Siddle of the Cumbria Coroners office for being the liaison with the Healy family, and also thanked the police in Cumbria and Gardaí in Ireland. The case was successfully re-investigated in Cumbria by Detective Inspector John Graham-Cumming, and in Ireland by Detective Richie Lynch, who was then working in the Garda Bureau of Missing Persons.
Patrick Healy was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1916. Today, sitting alone in a room at Coroners Court in Cockermouth in Cumbria, the local coroner formally closed the case of the unidentified body washed in 1986.
The body was Patrick Healy, and we now know that he entered the water in Dublin, drowned, and his body was washed along the Irish Sea to where it rested in England for 34 years. But now he is back in Ireland. He is home now.
There are 575 other unidentified bodies in Britain.
If you are family or friends of a missing person and would like to know more, please contact me at [email protected]
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