Leominster is in shock and mourning for the second time in a month after the bodies of two local men – Paul Smith and Andrew Smith (unrelated) – were pulled from the River Lugg on Saturday after being missing for four days.
The detective heading inquiries into the unexplained deaths said he is not looking for anyone else involved in the tragedy, and it is apparent that both 43-year-old Paul and his best friend Andrew, aged 40, were upset and in personal turmoil when they plunged into the icy water a few yards from the bypass.
Having received “strange messages” from the men on mobile phones on Tuesday night when they were last heard of alive, friends knew they were in real danger of self-harming and the alarm was raised.
Some friends – who do not wish to be named – told the Journal they were angry because six children the men had between them had been left fatherless.
Paul and Andrew – both steel erectors – had a large circle of friends but over Christmas and New Year had become depressed with family and relationship problems. Earlier in the year they both attended the Stonebow Unit at Hereford Hospital and received help for depression.
A former employer said Paul had been depressed last year and had apparently tried to hang himself, and underwent a spell of residential care in the Stonebow Unit.
Paul was said to have split with his second wife and a relationship with a local woman had also recently ended. He had five school age children by his first and second wives.
But nobody could have foreseen the New Year’s Eve double tragedy that unfolded after the pair had been drinking in the Re-Rack in Leominster, and bought more alcohol before apparently making a suicide pact and plunging into the Lugg together.
Local police – led by Detective Inspector Alan Mardell – now have the job of piecing together the final hours of Paul and Andrew’s lives. Friends say they had been openly discussing mutual personal problems and had been receiving counselling and treatment for their relationship problems at Stonebow.
Clothing was found on the river bank a few yards from the icy water. Mobile phones were found and messages retrieved. It is believed their loved ones received last messages giving the impression that the men were not going to be seen alive again.
Teams from the Severn Area Rescue Association, Kidderminster, were called in and with police and tracker dogs they searched the waters of the Lugg alongside the town’s bypass, opposite the Millennium Wood. Relatives from both families joined in, as did friends and workmates.
Leominster is still reeling from the alleged murder of pawnbroker George Black and the serious burns suffered by his girlfriend Sylvia Smith, who were both soaked in petrol and set alight.
One close friend said he and many others felt a real sense of anger coupled with disbelief at the drowned men’s unforeseen and drastic actions.
He said close friends and family members were devastated because the men could have continued with the professional help they were receiving and not left so many fatherless children.
“I simply cannot get my head around what they have done.
“I know they sent various texts and the contents of these were very worrying.
“We alerted the police once we knew they had not been seen the next morning. It was obvious something had happened once a coat and phone had been found on the river bank, but nobody expected anything like this,” he said.
Post mortems on both men will take place this evening (Wednesday). There are no suspicious circumstances.
