Galway Gardaí seek help to identify body 13 years on

GARDAÍ have this week made a renewed effort to try and contact family or friends of a Galway city busker whose body has lain unclaimed at the University Hospital Galway morgue for the last thirteen years.

On April 17, 2002, businessman Henry Greally discovered the body of a man in the backgarden of a house he was renovating at Upper Lenaboy, Salthill – since then though no one has come forward to claim the body.

On Monday night, Gardaí highlighted the case on national television when details of the missing man were outlined in the Crimecall RTE One programme.

Gardai believe that the man went under the name of Dave Rawson, and was also possibly nicknamed ‘Tang’. Despite a picture of the man being circulated back in 2008, no other details have emerged about him.

At one point detectives travelled to England to investigate a possible connection the deceased might have had with the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, while there also had been suggestions that he had a sister in the Exeter area. There were also suggestions that the man had been married at one stage of his life.

One theory being investigated is that the unidentified man had been squatting with friends at the derelict house adjoining the area where he was found, and could have died from natural causes.

His mates possibly buried him in a shallow grave in a sleeping bag just 18 inches under the surface soil. Although a full post mortem examination on the body was carried out, and followed up by a re-examination some time later, the exact cause of death of the man was not established.

The man could have been buried for some time before his body was discovered – he is understood to have been last alive in the Galway city area, about two years before his remains were found.

Anyone with information that could be of assistance to Gardaí is asked to contact Salthill Station at 091-514720.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.