Relatives believe the skeletal remains found in Siparia on Friday belong to Orville Ashley Richards who has been missing since June. –
THE family of missing retiree Orville “Ashley” Richards is convinced that skeletal remains found last Friday at Deoraj Trace, off Penal Quinam Road, are his.
His family members said clothing found near the remains matched clothes Richards was wearing on June 12 when he left his Penal Quinam Road home at Mendez Village. They are almost 100 per cent certain the remains are his.
But the family will have to wait for the lengthy process of DNA testing to determine the identity and then cause of death.
Richards, 60, was the father of three daughters. He lived with his common-law-wife Lenore George, who reported him missin
Family members, who did not want to be identified, said he was afraid of being poisoned and had identified someone he said wanted to kill him.
After a mental breakdown Richards suffered after his father died in 2012, he was put in a psychiatric ward and prescribed drugs they claimed “may have been playing with his mind.”
One relative said, “Police were called often to his home, because he would lock himself in with a knife while claiming someone wanted to kill him. Last November he stopped eating anything other than Crix biscuit, because he said someone was trying to poison him.
“Because of this history, police did not take the threats seriously, harbouring the perception that he was mad.”
But the family believes he was murdered.
“It is strange that the body was found in an area which the Hunters Association combed unsuccessfully, shortly after his disappearance.”
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That search was suspended, but hunters from the area, who also belong to the association, discovered the remains in a spot previously searched, four months later.
“What is baffling us right now is, how did he get there after the hunters did so much searching in that area and found nothing? The body was found off the road which leads to a sawmill and houses.
“You tell me, if that body was there all the time, nobody came across it? Nobody smelled anything? I remember when a dog died in the area last year, the scent was horrible.
“This thing is so mysterious. Clearly the body was moved to this spot, because he was not someone to roam the bushes. If he wanted to go somewhere, he would jump in his vehicle and go.”
The relative said although this is not the conclusion they were hoping for, they are sad Richards was not found alive, but happy that his remains were found so there could be some closure.
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