Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases and UK true crime. Today's day one of twelve days
of Missing People throughout December. We are going to be covering the disappearance of
Ellen Coss Brown in Manchester in nineteen ninety nine. Ellen went missing after traveling
to Manchester from Ireland to visit her sister Bertha. After heading to Manchester Piccadilly
station to travel back to Hollyhead to board the ferry, she disappeared and her
family have been looking for her ever since. When I read about Ellen's case,
I just had to cover it as it was from close to where I
live and I really felt for Ellen's family who have been desperately trying to find
her. This episode is about a missing person and so does not contain any
graphic descriptions, but there are some discussions about mental illness, so listener discretion
is always advised. On the third of November nineteen ninety nine, fifty one
year old Ellen Coss Brown traveled to Manchester Piccadilly train station from her sister's home
in the area of Langley and Middleton. Piccadilly is the main train station,
which services the city of Manchester and it provides intercity and cross country services to
most places in the UK. As of March twenty twenty, it was the
third busiest train station outside of London in the UK. Ellen had made the
seven and a half mile journey from her sister Bertha's house in Langley plenty of
times before, as she often went to stay with her in her council home.
Ellen lived in Dublin and was originally from the city of bally Firm,
which is around five miles from Dublin. Her family have described her as vivacious,
good fun and always friendly. She was sociable and enjoyed a close relationship
with her family, particularly with two of her brothers, Thomas and James,
and her only son Peter. Peter would later explain that he was very close
with his mum and being an only child, he spent most of his time
with just her. He later told them n newspaper. We had a close
relationship. I was an only child and mostly my mom brought me up.
We spoke on the phone all the time. I would come home for Christmas
and holidays, and when she was in Manchester, I would go up and
see her She was quite a vivacious person. My mum loved music and I
remember her singing around the house, and she was independent. She always seemed
to look younger than she was. Ellen traveling to see her sister in Manchester
was a regular occurrence for her, and there was nothing out of the ordinary
about her being there in November of nineteen ninety nine. Her plan was to
travel to Hollyhead from Manchester Piccadilly station and then got on a ferry back home
to Dublin. Ellen didn't like to fly, and so she preferred to make
this longer journey to get there instead. This was a journey that Ellen had
made plenty of times, and so when she did this same journey on November
third, there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. Hollyhead is around
one hundred and twenty miles from Manchester and takes around three hours to get there
by train. It's then another three hours on the boat from Hollyhead to Dublin.
When Ellen got to Manchester Piccadilly that day, this was the journey that
everyone assumed that she would be making that day. Her family, however,
began to suspect that something was wrong when Ellen did not return to Dublin as
she had previously planned to do. This did ring some alarm bells. It
raised more red flags when the next day she also did not return. When
she hadn't returned the next day, Ellen's brothers Thomas and James in Ireland and
her family were extremely concerned by her disappearance and knew that this was out of
character. No matter how many times Ellen had made this journey, she always
returned and she was always in touch. Something didn't feel right to her family
and they decided to contact police. Her family weren't sure how far she had
gotten her journey from Manchester to Dublin. However, they phoned Greater Manchester Police
seeing as this is where she began her journey. Her family reported, however,
that GMP informed them that they would have to wait a day before reporting
her missing. Her family began and liaising with Greater Manchester Police and the Guarder
in Ireland to try and figure out what happened to Ellen. There was even
more concern given that Ellen didn't have a mobile phone or any way to directly
get in touch with her. Ellen's son Peter was contacted and his uncles informed
him that his mum had not returned, and when she hadn't returned the day
after, he was also concerned. He told the men in twenty nineteen she
did sometimes go places on her own, so not being around for a day
was not incredibly unusual. But then it got to another day and nobody had
heard from her, and she didn't have a mobile phone. We called the
police, but were advised to wait until the following day. We started getting
concerned and started liaising with the police in Manchester in Ireland. He adds.
We did wonder if she got on the boat. We asked the police to
look at CCTV footage and for some reason they couldn't get hold of it or
it wasn't working that night, so there was no CCTV footage. Ellen's brother
Thomas elaborated on this information about the CCTV, saying the police spent eight days
trialing the CCTV of people boarding the ferry or in the terminal, and then
said it was indiscernible. It was in mink condition when it left Hollyhead,
but must have got damaged in transit to Manchester. This was of course a
blow, as this would have confirmed whether Ellen had boarded the boat from Hollyhead
to Dublin and would have given them some concrete facts. Her family couldn't quite
understand where she could have gone. Given that she did not have a passport
and only had around twenty pounds with her on the day that she went missing,
there did not appear to be many places that she could have gone.
Ellen's family were also concerned about her welfare due to her state of mind before
her disappearance. Her family would later tell the press that Ellen had been struggling
with her mental health since her mother had died earlier on in the year.
In March nineteen ninety nine, her brother told the Irish Mirror Ellen had lost
it since Arma died in March nineteen ninety nine. She was mentally unwell.
There is no way she would have willingly gone missing and left her son.
Peter. Her son, also mentioned this in The m e n in twenty
nineteen, saying she had been staying with Bertha for a couple of months,
almost living with them for a while. My mum had some mental health issues.
She felt like a change of scenery would help because she'd been depressed,
he recalled. He spoke to his mom the night before she went missing.
He stated in the article. I remember at the end of the phone call
her telling me she loved me, although she would often say that. We
were talking about how she was feeling, and I said, we all want
you to get better, but you have to worry to get better. It's
down to you, and she said, yes, it is down to me.
It was clear to her family that she'd been struggling to get her life
back on track, but that she loved her family and that she would not
just have left, and so the fact that she had just disappeared was strange.
The family were desperate for information. However, initially they weren't sure where
she had last been seen, and they came up against some stumbling blocks.
Ellen was an Irish resident but had last been seen in Manchester, so her
case fell between two jurisdictions. Her family had stated that this made it difficult
for them to make any progress with the investigation from the outset. Both the
Garda in Ireland and the Greater Manchester Police were aware of Ellen as a missing
person, but despite this little progress was made initially. Thomas later said that
he was sent on a wild goose chase by the Garda and that Ellen's age
seemed to make her case less of a priority, he told the Irish Mirror
from day one. Once they realized what age she was, one of them
said to me, well, a lot of these women decide to go miss
in. There's nothing more we can do about it. Her family were sure
that this wasn't the case, though, and they pushed to have Ellen's case
featured on TV. This did not happen for around two weeks after Ellen's disappearance,
and the police did do an appeal on TV, with James and Tom
also appealing for information. The family have stated that they had to push police
to get this done. Though this appeal was of course helpful to Ellen's case
and made more people aware of her disappearance, but her family have stated that
following this they also got quite a few false sightings of Ellen, which did
not help the situation. Ellen's description had been disseminated. Ellen is described as
five foot three inches tall, slight build, with long gray and dark brown
hair that she normally ties back. She is very softly spoken, but is
usually sociable and friendly. Following this description, people came forward with information.
There were several sightings of Ellen from Hollyhead, suggesting that perhaps she had made
it there. One of these sightings came from a woman at a restaurant who
said that she saw someone fitting Ellen's description. Tom stated, a woman at
a restaurant in the center of Hollyhead told me a woman the exact size description
and with the same mannerisms as Ellen. Came in to get shelter from the
rain and wind. The member of staff said, I will have to ask
you to leave, and Ellen or the woman replied in a soft, refined
voice sorry. Tom also told the Irish Mirror that someone else said that they
saw her drinking with a crowd of strangers in Hollyhead. Tom stated, I
never found her. I went over thinking Hollyhead would be this small port town,
but it was a huge area. There were many suspected sightings of my
sister, but nothing ever came to any of them. I'm sure Ellen got
to Hollyhead. Ellen's family, in particular, her brother Tom, spent a
long time trying to get to the bottom of where Ellen could have gone,
and he has never stopped looking for her. Tom went backwards and forwards to
Hollyhead to try and see if he could track her down. This must have
been disappointing given the amount of effort that Tom went to to try and track
any leads down. He also explained that there were some rumors that Ellen was
perhaps living rough in Dublin. In fact, someone had stated that they had
seen someone in the homeless community who fit her description. Tom decided to also
sleep rough to try and get a look at this woman who someone thought was
his sister. He said, I can remember when there was a look alike
of her in Dublin. I had to sleep roth to gain the trust of
the homeless community, and I wanted to see this woman. I did see
her very like my sister, but not her. There were several sightings of
her in Dublin, but none of them turned out to be her. The
family also had some false hope given to them at one point when someone got
in contact with them and said that Ellen was staying with a friend but did
not want to make contact. Tom said, I broke down in the public
payphone with relief. I then rang my missing sister's son in London to give
him the good news, as I had done to my sister in Manchester and
my brother in Dublin. It was only when my nephew said are you sure?
Did you check it out who verified the story that I rang the guy
who told me he'd spoken to Ellen. I then realized he was sing up
the dates and it was before she went missing that he'd seen her. The
family were also facing the fact that Greater Manchester Police were under the impression that
Ellen was back in Dublin and that she had been working as a childminder.
This unfortunately meant that GMP had cut back the search for Ellen, as it
was believed that she was alive and well and perhaps just did not want to
make contact. All of these rumors and false sightings did not help at all
in locating Ellen, and the conflict between the jurisdictions between Dublin and Manchester also
added to the confusion. Ellen's son Peter, stated that he felt he was
always having to contact the police for any news or progress on the investigation.
He said, it felt like I was constantly having to ring the police for
updates. The police in Dublin wanted to close the case early. It didn't
feel like it was a priority. This must have added stress and heartache that
the fact did not need, particularly as they were trying to come to terms
with the fact that Ellen had simply vanished with no explanation. Around a year
after Ellen had disappeared, the family were faced with more heartache when Peter and
Ellen's sister Bertha were asked to go and view a body in Bournemouth. Peter
gave DNA samples in order to try and rule out this unidentified person who had
been found after being in the water for a long time. Peter said,
at one point me and Bertha had to view a body in Bournemouth. They'd
been in the water for some time. I didn't think it looked like her.
We had to give DNA samples in case, and it was an anxious
weight. In the end, it wasn't her. It was difficult because you're
making that journey and on the one hand you're hoping it isn't her, and
on the other you just want to know what has happened. That was probably
less than a year after she went missing two thousand. This would not be
the last time that Peter would have his DNA compared to other remains that have
been found, and each time he explains, it's always an anxious weight.
He told the men in twenty nineteen. Recently I had to do another DNA
sample because there might have been a match with some remains. It was not
the case, but it brought everything to the forefront. You've got hope on
the one hand, but dread on the other that you will hear the worst.
People talk about closure, that you want to know one way or another.
I think that's exactly it. I'm a bit more hopeful that we will
establish what happened, but then again, we have been here before and it's
twenty years down the line. Since Ellen went missing in nineteen ninety nine,
her family have not stopped looking for her and have appealed at every opportunity for
information. Ellen's case became an important part of a civil case in the Circuit
Civil Court in twenty twenty one when it was discovered that she was a beneficiary
of the estate of a relative. She is the beneficiary of three hundred and
seventy two thousand euros from the estate and this brought up the problem of the
fact that Ellen is a missing person. Ellen's brother, James, was the
administrator of the estate and it's reported that he asked the court for directions and
what to do in this situation. Judge John O'Connor declared that an advert should
be placed in a Manchester newspaper asking for her to contact family and also to
explain that they were looking for information as to her whereabouts. This brings up
an important issue when it comes to the long term missing. Life still moves
on and who deals with things like this when they come up. As of
November twenty twenty three, Ellen Coss Brown is still missing and it does not
appear that there have been any new developments. Ellen is a loved person and
her family have done everything they can to try and find her. It's clear
that her family miss her daily and would just love to know where she is
and what happened. Ellen's brother Tom wrote a poem about Ellen's disappearance in twenty
sixteen. It reads, You've been missing since forever, or at least that's
how it seems, And that's why I feel like replying when someone asks when
you were last seen. Instead, I just give the standard answer, to
the best of my knowledge, last scene for definite on such a date,
The date that has now replaced your birthday, your first day at school,
your first romance, your first job, has now become the date we live
to hate. Sometimes I can almost convince myself that you either started a new
life and a happy way you are, or that you just had a fall
took your own life and that someday your body will be found. For even
when a body is found, you're left with more questions than answers, like
was it something I said? Or didn't that make them decide to go away?
Ellen was a beloved sister, mother, daughter, and family member,
and her family deserve answers to what happened. If you know anything about Ellen
Coss Brown's disappearance in nineteen ninety nine, then please contact Greater Manchester Police on
one oh one. I'll contact the Missing Person charity. I will link Ellen's
missing person profile in the show notes. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
This is day one of the twelve Days of Missing People episodes in December,
so listen out for the next episode in two days. If you'd like
to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to the
exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can also get access
to new episodes early in ad free. You can use the link in the
show notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support
us by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen including Spotify and also just share the
episodes. You can subscribe on YouTube and follow us on social media as our
Ways and Caprice And this has been unseen