Brother of Cork man found dead in London 34 years after going missing says family has 'closure we needed'

The family of a Cork man who has been found dead in London, having gone missing 34 years ago, have paid tribute to gardaí and said it has given them the “closure we needed”.

Patrick ‘Patsy’ O’Sullivan was 35 at the time of his disappearance. He was last seen by his family at Lombardstown, Mallow, over the Easter bank holiday weekend in April 1992.

He was working as a chef in Killarney and was due to return home for a Christening, but the alarm was raised after he failed to turn up at the event.

Mr O’Sullivan was known to travel for work for weeks at a time, but would always maintain contact with his family.

Over the course of the last three decades, following his disappearance, efforts were made collaboratively by members of An Garda Síochána and Mr O’Sullivan’s family to locate the Mallow native.

Jerry O’Sullivan said yesterday that his brother disappeared willingly in 1992 due to being a gay man. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland in 1993.

Jerry told the The Echo that he and his family were shocked after being notified of his brother’s death in August and learning that he had moved to London to start a new life.

Jerry said his brother changed his name in 1995 to Patrick Aldridge, which contributed to a lack of leads provided on his missing person’s case over the years. Aldridge was the surname of Patrick’s partner, who predeceased him in 2022.

Ill for a number of years

Jerry revealed that Patrick had been ill for a number of years prior to his death on July 5, 2024, having gone partially blind before dying as a result of urinary sepsis.

“I haven’t been able to say this previously, but my brother was a gay man, and back in the early 1990s, it wasn’t really accepted — so that’s why he left and started a new life,” he added.

“I’m not ashamed of him in any way, we as a family never had any issue or argument with him about it.

“I take solace in knowing that he did actually live a good life, his life — one that he didn’t have here in the ’90s due to the hatred people had for who he was.”

When Jerry and his family were told that Patrick had died, he said the news was “a hard pill to swallow”.

“On August 7, Garda PJ Roche called me and asked if I would be available on the following Monday,” said Jerry. 

“PJ would have been in contact with us on a regular basis, giving me updates and things like that, so the last thing I expected him to tell me was that Patrick had been found.

“They gave us the news and told us he had been found deceased, which was a hard pill to swallow. I was always hopeful that he would be found, but all the DNA they tested from John Does over the last 10-15 years was negative. So it came as a huge shock to us.”

Jerry said he believes his brother “thought he was doing the right thing” by leaving Ireland due to being gay.

“I got a lot of grief when I was younger because of his sexuality,” said Jerry. “It can’t have been an easy decision for him to leave his two parents and six siblings, so I must give him credit for doing something like that.

“Life has changed since then, I take comfort in knowing [being gay] is more accepted now, but there was a lot of cruel people back then.”

Discovered his identity

Jerry said that prior to his brother’s death, he was being cared for by a woman who discovered his original identity.

This same woman paid for Patrick’s cremation and, at his request, spread his ashes with the ashes of his partner at a place they frequented in London.

Jerry said this woman then made attempts in 2024 to locate his family back in Ireland, which went unnoticed until now.

“The person I really have to thank is the woman who looked after him. She found a piece of paper in his flat from when he changed his name in 1995, and she kept that in the hopes of finding us,” he said.

“She posted something online in 2024 looking for a connection, but unfortunately nothing ever came of it.

“She is an incredible lady. She was the only one who had the key to unlock all of this,” he added.

“She actually paid for his funeral, which is something that I will hold dear to her forever — because it is an astonishing thing to do for someone you barely knew.”

Thanked gardaí

Jerry also thanked the gardaí who worked on his brother’s case, including Detective Superintendent Joanne O’Brien, Superintendent Niall O’Connell, Detective Inspector Anna Marie Guiney, Detective Sergeant Derek Barnett, Detective Lisa O’Sullivan, and Garda PJ Roche, who he said never let his family go without an update on the investigation.

“Between them, they gave us the closure we needed,” said Jerry.

Jerry further revealed he will be travelling to the UK in November to meet with a number of people who knew his brother over the last three decades.

“I’m hoping that we weren’t far from the back of Patrick’s mind, that he never forgot about us.

“I’ll get to meet a few of his neighbours next month, and the woman who cared for him. I want to meet as many people as I possibly can to get some bit of information on his life.

“When I get back, we’re going to do something here for him, maybe a memory box and getting his name put on a headstone.”