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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today's episode five of twelve

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episodes of missing person cases throughout December. Today we're going to be covering the

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disappearance of Dr David Lidgey from his
home in Norfolk in twenty eleven. He

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left behind his wife and his children, and his disappearance baffled everyone who knew

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him. This episode is about a
missing person and so does not contain any

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graphic descriptions. However, it does
contain some descriptions of possible mental illness,

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so listener discretion is always advised.
Hillgay is a village around four miles from

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the town of Downham Market in Norfolk. It's a small village which had only

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around thirteen hundred people as recorded in
the twenty eleven census. It's a small

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place, with a lot of the
facilities being in down a Market which has

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a train station with links to London's
King's Cross and another town, King's Lynn

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in Norfolk. Doctors David and Shonah
lidge lived in the town of Hillgay in

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twenty eleven with their three children.
The family had moved from London four years

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previously, and the couple had met
while on a GP training course in nineteen

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ninety five. Shona would later say
that David was a devoted father who loved

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to play boisterous games with his children
and was very interested in instilling his own

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love of sport. Shona later said
that she loved him totally and that he

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was both a good husband and a
good father to their children. Despite this,

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Shona would later say that David wasn't
completely happy with his life in Norfolk.

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She stated that in early twenty eleven, David had gone into what she

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described as a depressive episode. Shona
had found it relatively easy to find a

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job in Norfolk and had been offered
a GP partnership. However, David had

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struggled and did not enjoy the lowcome
temporary position that he had. Shonah said

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that this had been a source of
dissatisfaction, but that this seemed to be

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the culmination of problems that had been
building for a while. Shooner explained that

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this was not the first time that
David had suffered with depression, and he

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had been affected by some traumatic events
that had happened to him in his life.

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She explained that as a young doctor, one of his closest friends had

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taken their own life. Then,
in two thousand and one, both of

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his parents had died within a very
short time of each other, which had

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caused him great distress. Working in
southeast London had also caused David to become

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worried about his and the family's safety, as on one occasion he had to

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protect a mother and daughter from a
man who badged into his GP surgery with

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a knife. On another occasion,
he was attacked by someone with a hammer

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due to a road rage incident.
All of these things had left David feeling

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worried and unhappy with his life in
London, and it was at this point

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that he decided moving to the countryside
would be the best idea for him and

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his family. This, however,
also did not turn out the way that

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he had hoped it would. David
would have depressive episodes sporadically throughout his relationship

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with Shona. However, when he
was approached about possibly getting help about it,

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he would shrug it off. He
would only discuss this with Shona,

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and no one else knew about the
extent of his troubles. He told Shona

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that he believed that it would affect
the way in which others saw him,

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including his colleagues. Shona stated to
the Mirror newspaper in twenty twenty two.

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Of course that wasn't true because his
care would have been confidential and the medical

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profession deals with this illness every day. But David felt he had to deal

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with the condition in his own way, an all too common male approach to

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depression. The irony is he was
very good at helping other depress people.

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Ex Patients have phoned me up saying
how wonderful he was with them. It's

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so sad his pride didn't allow him
to take that help himself. The move

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didn't work out for him, but
I also feel that he had some unresolved

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problems that had been building for years. Shona added in the Daily Mail.

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It was a really difficult time.
David was very angry and bitter, and

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I felt him withdrawing from the family. He really wasn't talking to me at

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all. He spoke constantly of moving
again, but the children were settled in

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new schools and we couldn't afford to
go back to London. On the morning

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of the twenty ninth of June,
twenty eleven, David dropped the children off

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at school as usual. Shona later
recalled that while dropping the children off was

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part of the usual routine, the
couple had had an argument that morning before

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he left. She said that they
had been discussing her plans to take the

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children to Alton Towers on a weekend
that David was working. Shonah had not

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seen a problem with these plans,
as she later said that David hated theme

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parks and would not have wanted to
go anyway. David, however, was

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upset and angry about the fact that
they would be going without him, and

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Shonah said she was surprised by his
reaction. She stated, though, that

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by the time he left to take
the kids to school and she left for

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work, he seemed more of his
normal self. Shona left for work,

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but later on that morning she received
a text from David. The text said

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that he felt unwell and he was
going to take the day off. Shona

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returned home later on that day,
but David wasn't there. Instead of David,

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there was a handwritten note which read
gone for a walk. David was

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known to go on long walks on
the fence, and so the fact that

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he went for a walk was not
out of the ordinary. There were some

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worrying things though. David had left
behind many of his belongings, In fact,

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pretty much all of his belongings.
Shona said, I kept calling his

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mobile phone, but he wouldn't answer. Then, after some time I realized

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I could hear it ringing upstairs in
the bedroom. He left his car,

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passport, wallet, all of his
credit cards, even the loose change in

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his pockets. All he took were
the house keys. Shona also added that

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David had left behind his leather and
tool and a tag Huer watch, which

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which had been both gifts from her. She said, it felt like a

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very personal message to me that he
was leaving and wasn't coming back. It

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was as if he'd just shed a
life he didn't want any more. When

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David didn't return, Shona became worried, and the fact that he'd left all

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of these important belongings behind made his
family all the more concerned. There were

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no real indications as to where David
had gone, and the only known sighting

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of him that day was by a
neighbor who saw him return home around forty

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minutes after setting out to take the
children to school. David's family were worried,

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but also knew that this was not
the first time that he had left

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the home in recent months. Shona
would later explain that six weeks before the

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day he disappeared, she and David
had had another trivial argument and David had

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left the home and driven off in
his car. Shonah said he wouldn't answer

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his phone or write a text,
and the children were really upset. Shown

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arang the police because she was worried
about his mental well being. David was

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very apologetic when he came back the
next morning. He told me he realized

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how silly it had been and promised
it would never happen again. This has

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an eerie similarity to what happened on
the morning of June the twenty ninth,

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and this was something that he had
done before. Where had he gone and

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why had he left behind all of
his belongings. He actually addressed this previous

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disappearance on June the twenty ninth as
he took his children to school. His

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son Arthur explained this, saying,
in the car, my father kept apologizing

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to us, saying how sorry he
was for upsetting us by leaving a few

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weeks earlier, he told us how
much he loved us. That was the

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last thing we ever heard him say. This would also not be the only

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time that David would speak about leaving
his home and his family. Shooner explained

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that she found out that around nine
months before his disappearance, David had approached

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a former colleague of his that worked
in London and asked them for a reference

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for a job. David said he
wanted to move to Australia. When he

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was asked if it was just him
or the family as well, he apparently

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replied, no, I'm going by
myself. It's my sanity or my family.

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These incidents prior to David's disappearance,
of course, were a concern and

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made David's family worry that something similar
could have happened this time. This time,

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however, David did not return like
the previous occasion, and Shona began

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to search for her husband. There
didn't seem to be any information about where

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David had gone, and without being
able to trace his mobile phone, his

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movements were unknown. After he went
missing, there were some sightings of him

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which were phoned into police. Its
reported that a man matching his description was

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seen at five a m. In
a road in Leicester, where David used

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to live as a medical student.
It stated that this man called up at

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a window and was searching for his
former landlord. There was also another sighting

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at a football match in the city. It reported that the charity Missing People

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supported the family by distributing posters across
the country and by putting adverts in classified

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ads. They also set up a
dedicated phone line and helped to follow up

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leads that came up. Despite this, however, little information seemed to be

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forthcoming. Shown A later said about
this time, I was so desperate I

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wanted to climb up Big Ben and
shout, Where's David? How do I

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find him? It was horrendous.
We missed him so much. None of

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us will ever fully recover from it. It has maimed us in a way.

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A year after David went missing,
shown Her explained that something else took

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over her life when David and Shona's
son Arthur became ill. Shooner explained that

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as much as she wanted to find
David, her children had to come first.

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Arthur had been devastated by his father's
disappearance, and as a result,

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he had struggled with his weight.
This had reportedly plummeted to around six stone

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three pounds and he became very ill. Shonah said, I felt that I

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just couldn't search for David anymore because
he was an adult and Arthur was a

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child and needed me more. Ruth
was in the middle of her GCSEs and

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also suffering. It was just dreadful, and I felt completely distressed and also

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angry. I decided he'd have to
come and find us. We stopped looking.

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Shona also explained how life was after
David's disas appearance and gave an insight

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into many of the practicalities that come
with having a loved one disappear. Shona

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said that as the house was in
both of their names, she was unable

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to sell it, but struggled to
pay for it with just one wage.

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This meant that she had to borrow
money to try and keep the family afloat.

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This must have been devastating for a
family that were already struggling with loss.

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It would take seven years for David
to be declared legally dead at the

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High Court, and it was at
this point that Shona was able to sell

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the house and clear the debts that
had accrued over the years. It was

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also around this time in twenty eighteen
that Shona received some extremely disturbing communication from

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somebody who said that they were David. One day, she received a message

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on her landline. The message said, I have just been away for a

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while. I'm coming home on a
plane. Should be with you soon.

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Please have a news paper for me. This was worrying as Shona's landline was

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ex directory and was not publicly available
for anyone to just find. Shona said

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that she decided to text the number
and had quite a long text communication with

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them. She later recalled, I
thought who is that? So I text

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the number and we had a long
text dialogue and this person kept insisting it

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was David, and I kept disbelieving
that it was. Asking for proof.

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You'd say things like I've been in
India for a long time in Australia and

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I haven't got a smartphone and I
can't send a picture. When I tried

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to call the number, no one
answered. The same person text her elder

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son saying is that you Arthur.
I don't want to cause you anguish,

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but you'll be seeing me soon DL. It was very upsetting. I contacted

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the police because this person said some
personal things which made me think it could

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be David, and his writing style
was very similar, and how could this

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person have our numbers? Shona said
that the police attempted to trace the number

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to find out who had been sending
the messages, but could only tell that

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the phone had been in London,
but they could not find out who had

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been sending the messages. Shona said
the police were incredibly helpful, but they

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were unable to find out who it
was. Then one day when I tried

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to send a message, the line
was out of service, so we'll never

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know. She also stated that she
believed that the timing of these messages could

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have been the result of her application
to declare David dead in twenty eighteen.

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She said, I don't know if
it was David or some crank, but

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in my heart I do feel that
David is still alive. If not from

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David, then who would be cruel
enough to send me messages claiming to be

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him. I can't think of anyone
who would want to hurt us that much.

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This is sadly something which has come
up in other missing person cases,

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where people insert themselves and all that
happens is that they hurt the family who

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is grieving the loss of a loved
one. David's family have all come together

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are extremely close today. They have
been resolute in the fact that they just

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want answers as to what happened to
David, and they want to know that

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he is okay. David's starter,
Ruth said, for a long time,

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I avoided even thinking about it,
but I now feel I need to know

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what happened to my father. When
someone dies, you can grieve and move

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on, but when someone you love
goes missing, there is nothing but uncertainty,

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even though life carries on. If
he's alive, I'd like to have

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him back in our lives in some
way, no matter how difficult that might

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be for all of us. Their
son Arthur said, I can't see how

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a person can live for so long
completely off radar, without leaving any trace,

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but I would like some kind of
resolution. Shona has stated that she

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does not believe that David would have
taken his own life, saying that his

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sense of self preservation was too strong. She said, I'd like him to

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know that he's still loved by us. I may no longer love him as

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a wife, There's been too much
pain and heartache for that, but I

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will always love him as the father
of our children. Shona and her three

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children mark David's disappearance every year and
they hope that they will get answers as

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to what happened and give them some
closure. If you know anything about the

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disappearance of David Lidgey in twenty eleven, then please contact the police on one

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oh one or the charity Missing People. I will link the website and David's

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profile on there, so please go
and take a look. Thank you for

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listening to day five of twelve Days
of Missing Person episodes throughout December. Please

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00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.840
listen in in two days for day
six. If you'd like to support the

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I'm Caprice and this has been unseen, sh