Family want answers on handling of Waterford man’s death in Dublin
The family of Jamie Weldon, who was found dead in his apartment in Dublin on August 2023: his brothers and sisters Billy, Monica, Frances, Fiona, and Sean from Butlerstown, Co Waterford. File picture: Patrick Browne
The family of a Waterford man whose body lay unidentified in a Dublin morgue for almost a month say they are disappointed that justice minister Jim O’Callaghan will not meet them to discuss the case.
The family of Jamie Weldon, from Butlerstown, are now awaiting a date to meet garda management to highlight concerns about the handling of his death.
Mr Weldon’s remains were 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.
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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 over two weeks later, on September 15.
The family made a complaint to Fiosrú, the office of the police ombudsman, subsequently, about the delay between the discovery of his body and informing his family that remains of a person believed to be Mr 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.
Fiosrú did not uphold the complaint.
In correspondence to their local TD Conor McGuinness, Jim O’Callaghan’s office advised he has no “statutory role” in overseeing decisions by Fiosrú or in directing Garda investigations.
The correspondence, sent in recent weeks, added: “He cannot intervene in this matter. For this reason, regrettably a meeting would not be beneficial, as he is unable to overturn or review the decision made in this case.”
It stated the option is open to the family to seek independent legal advice “to explore if other avenues may be available to them”.
Jamie’s sister Fiona said the decision by the minister not to meet with the family is disappointing but his siblings are now hoping that a meeting with garda management will take place in the coming weeks.
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 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 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 told the 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.
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