Brother of missing woman slept rough in bid to find her

Ellen Coss Brown: Disappeared on November 3, 1999, while returning from Manchester. 

Ballyfermot woman Ellen Coss Brown was deeply loved by her family and after she disappeared while returning home from Holyhead just over 21 years ago, one of her brothers slept rough among Dublin’s homeless in a bid to find her.

Although her son Peter and other members of the family never gave up hope in their search for her, Judge John O’Connor has been asked in the Circuit Civil Court to help in a final bid to contact her.

Ms Coss Brown, who would now be 72, is a significant beneficiary in a €372,000 estate and her brother, James Brown, who is administering the final will of a family member, asked the court for directions.

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Judge O’Connor directed that an advertisement be placed in a leading Manchester newspaper asking her to contact her family and seeking any possible information that may remain with regard to her possible whereabouts.

Ms Coss Brown was 51 when she went missing. The mother of one had been staying with her sister Bertha Lee in Langley, Middleton. Ms Lee waved goodbye to her on November 3, 1999, at Piccadilly Rail Station in Manchester as she left for Holyhead to catch the ferry back home to Dublin, a trip she had made many times.

Sadly it was the last time her sister, or anyone else, would see Ellen Coss Brown, despite searches by police in Wales and England and gardaí in Dublin and her brother. Bertha has since passed away without having seen or heard from her again.

Ms Coss Brown’s son Peter was living in Penge, South London, at the time and spoke to his mother the night before she went missing. He remembered her telling him at the end of the phone call that she loved him, although this was something she would often say to him.

About a year after she went missing, Peter and his aunt Bertha had to view a body in Bournemouth that had been in the water for some time. He did not think it looked like her. The family gave DNA samples and after an anxious wait it turned out not to be Ellen.

Ms Coss Brown’s brother, Tom Brown, often travelled to Holyhead hoping he might find her and spent months trawling the streets of Dublin in a desperate bid to locate his missing sister.

Several sightings

He was told there was a lookalike of her in Dublin and he slept rough to gain the trust of the homeless community as he wanted to see this woman, He did see her and she was very like his sister but not her. It was only one of several sightings of her in Dublin but none of them turned out to be her.

Ms Coss Brown had two brothers, James and Thomas, and her sister Bertha Lee. Now James, the administrator of the estate of a family member is seeking the court’s assistance in finally wrapping up distribution of the estate.

Judge O’Connor told barrister Karl Dowling he would adjourn the matter until July when further directions would be considered by the court in the event of no further trace of Ms Coss Brown being found.