Missing sailor: Leading Seaman Simon Parkes RN

[Queensman]

This sad story popped up again yesterday. We were the resident battalion on the Rock at the time and a lot of us spent many hours scrabbling around in the scrub on the slopes of the Upper Rock looking for the chap. To think he might have been buried somewhere in the Trafalgar cemetery all this time is a bit alarming.

We had a strained relationship with the Andrew around that time, as, at around that time, one of theirs murdered one of ours in Casemates one evening. I don't recall anyone ever getting lifted for that either. RIP Pte Paul Griffin.

I hope they find the remains of Parkes.

Cemetery search in 1986 missing sailor case

Simon Parkes is thought to have been murdered while he was on shore leave in Gibraltar.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[putteesinmyhands]

It strikes me as odd that he would be hidden in Trafalgar Cemetery. It's on the way to Lathbury and South Barracks so a possibility for a soldier but less likely for a sailor - unless he was heading for the casino.

If he was last seen in Irish Town/Main Street (where the bars are) and was looking for food (Casemates is a fair bet as everywhere else would be shut), I'd have focussed the search in the area that is now reclaimed land, not now a practical place for a search.

Two other options come to mind. He may have crossed into La Linea (not a wise place to be for a lone serviceman at night) or his body could have ended up in the boot of a car disposed of at the car tip off Dudley Ward Way. Anywhere else and I would have expected his remains to have been found decades ago.

 

[CptDanjou]

In the eighties the locals had RIBs (now banned I believe) and were bringing contraband in and out by the ton , it wouldnt have been difficult to dump a weighted corpse over the side en route at night, just a thought.

 

[Rab_C]

It strikes me as odd that he would be hidden in Trafalgar Cemetery. It's on the way to Lathbury and South Barracks so a possibility for a soldier but less likely for a sailor - unless he was heading for the casino.

If he was last seen in Irish Town/Main Street (where the bars are) and was looking for food (Casemates is a fair bet as everywhere else would be shut), I'd have focussed the search in the area that is now reclaimed land, not now a practical place for a search.

Two other options come to mind. He may have crossed into La Linea (not a wise place to be for a lone serviceman at night) or his body could have ended up in the boot of a car disposed of at the car tip off Dudley Ward Way. Anywhere else and I would have expected his remains to have been found decades ago.

The cemetery Is right on the corner where he’d turn down to the dockyard if like a lot of pissed matelots he’d bounced passed The Angry Friar on the way back to the ship.

 

[devexwarrior]

By coincidence I was reading the Wikipedia entry on 'missing people' and came across this case. It must be very hard in the family not to know what happened.

 

[AULD_SWEAT]

I hope the lad is found,and the family get some closure. I assume the search was triggered by information from the aptly named Mr Grimson.