Inquest to take place of Waterford man who lay in morgue for almost a month

Jamie Weldon: Inquest is scheduled to take place on Thursday afternoon at the Dublin District Coroner's Court.

The inquest into the death of a Waterford man who lay unidentified in a Dublin morgue for almost a month will take place on Thursday.

The body of Jamie Weldon, from Butlerstown, Co Waterford, was found in his Iveagh Trust apartment on Upper Kevin St in Dublin on August 19, 2023 — on what would have been his 57th birthday. His last contact with people had been on July 28, 2023.

Mr Weldon’s six siblings only discovered, after making a welfare check request on August 25, 2023, that remains believed to be that of their brother were in the Dublin City Morgue — almost a week after his body was discovered.

Because he had been dead for some time before his body was discovered on August 19, the family was told the body was unviewable and a DNA match was necessary to prove his identity. One of his brothers provided a DNA sample at Kevin Street Garda Station on August 29.

His remains were released to his family on September 15.

His inquest is scheduled to take place on Thursday afternoon at the Dublin District Coroner's Court.

The inquest has previously been adjourned following a complaint filed by Mr Weldon’s family to the then Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission about the handling of the case. 

The family of Jamie Weldon, Billy, Monica, Frances, Fiona, and Sean, from Butlerstown, Co Waterford. File picture: Patrick Browne

Their complaint centred on the delay between the discovery of his body and informing his family that remains of a person believed to be Jamie Weldon were in the morgue, as well as concerns that a complaint made about missing items, including his most recent PPS card, was not followed up.

The family says Mr Weldon's phone was in his apartment on the date his body was found. They claim it was never turned on by investigating gardaí as his sister switched it on on October 21, 2023, and discovered that the weather widget on it showed July 31. The phone had been in possession of gardaí until his identification. 

His family believes that if gardaí had turned on the device, they would have been able to access his last calls and made contact faster with his family to notify of his death.

The family also question why cards and other items in his apartment were not used as clues to help gardaí find them in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of his remains.

A Garda spokesman has previously outlined to the Irish Examiner that extensive inquiries were conducted by gardaí in Kevin St to identify a next-of-kin subsequent to the discovery of the body, “including checking against missing person records, which eventually resulted in the potential identification of the deceased”.

That identification subsequently needed to be confirmed by DNA analysis, according to gardaí.