Family claim man was ‘kidnapped and murdered’
An open verdict has been recorded in the death of a city man, whose body was washed up onto the Aran Islands seven weeks after he went missing, but whose family believe that he was abducted and murdered.
Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin, Coroner for West Galway, told the family of Tom Ward (39) yesterday that the inquiry could be revisited, in the event that they obtained information to further their suspicions.
The father of five, who had been living between 32 Corrach Bui, Rahoon, and the Fairgreen Hostel at the time of his disappearance, was last seen by his brother, Jimmy, late on February 7 last year.
“When he was seven weeks missing, my sister made a complaint to Gardaí that we were afraid he had been abducted and murdered,” he said.
His body was found washed up on Inis Mór on March 28. The body was badly decomposed.
Consultant pathologist, Dr Teresa McHale, said that the decomposition of the body was not as advanced as she would have expected for someone missing for seven weeks, but attributed this to the cold temperatures of the seawater.
She could not conclusively deduce that Mr Ward had died as a result of drowning, however, and concluded that the death was indeterminable.
Dr MacLoughlin returned an open verdict, explaining that the only certainty was that the remains were those of Tom Ward.
“An open verdict means that we don’t know how he got into the water, not precisely sure when, and can’t determine scientifically that he drowned,” he said.
For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.