After never truly “getting over” his sister’s disappearance, the brother of a schoolgirl thought to have been murdered and turned into kebab meat passed away from a heroin overdose.
18 years after his 14-year-old sister Charlene vanished from Blackpool, Lancashire, without a trace, Robert Downes, 30, passed away in December of last year.
Despite the fact that Charlene’s body has never been discovered, police believe she was murdered by men who had been abusing her sexually.
At a murder trial in 2007, the prosecution alleged that her body was dismembered and minced into kebabs, and that her bones were crushed into tile grouting.
However, after a jury was unable to reach a decision, the charges were dropped, and her grieving family was never given justice for her.
After an inquest followed Mr. Downes’s passing, his distraught mother Karen said that her son had never been the same since Charlene vanished.
After what happened to Charlene, she claimed, Robert was never the same. Justice never came to us.
We were all greatly impacted by it. He was a sweet, bubbly young man.
“He was nice.” Everyone will tell you that they would sacrifice anything for anyone.
“But he went to jail and got sober; I never imagined he would ever do anything similar again.”
He had four lovely children to look forward to: three of his biological children and one adopted child.
He was funny and beautiful, and his dry sense of humor used to make people laugh.
He was flourishing. I was astonished because of this. All I can think to ask is, “Why did this happen – why, why?”
His father reportedly discovered him dead in a pool of his own blood on December 4 of last year, according to the inquest, which was conducted at Blackpool Town Hall.
Around 6.30 p.m. that day, his mother Karen, 57, said she last saw him alive.
I’m okay, I’m just going to get my head down,” her kid responded as his mother shouted up to him from the bottom of the steps.
The inquest heard that after she slept off on the sofa, Robert Sr., 60, yelled, “Karen, Karen, Karen, he’s dead, he’s dead,” to wake her up.
The couple, who are both from Coventry, West Midlands, experienced a panic attack but did not contact emergency personnel until about three hours later, at 2.50 am on December 5.
The married mother of four said before the court that she was unaware that her son had been taking heroin, even though he had stopped using it after receiving a prison sentence in 2019.
As far as we knew, he was clean, the woman stated. He appeared to be in great shape.
He had troubles with heroin in the past, but since he was released from prison, he had really made an attempt to be a better person. He went to the gym and obtained a job, his girlfriend Enya Cardwell testified to the court.
He had abstained from heroin use for three years, as far as I know.
Coroner Alan Wilson gave the verdict of death by accident and stated, “We are dealing with someone who has a history of drug use but has recently been avoiding heroin.”
“We don’t know why he chose to use heroin on this occasion, and maybe having made that choice he used the heroin in a similar quantity to what he used to, and hasn’t taken into account that he has lost tolerance and may be more susceptible to the toxic effects,” the statement reads.
After the inquest, Robert Sr. said his son’s death felt like he had “been stabbed with a blunt knife.”
There are no words, he said. You live with it every day. It really hits home when that is your reality.
“We have now been disregarded twice. Now all we have to do is recover, but how can you?
The verdict, according to Robert’s sister Rebecca, 45, “threw the family sick” and “came as an absolute horrific shock.”
Her younger brother was “spontaneous, cheeky, and misunderstood,” she said, paying tribute to him.
He had three older sisters, was the only boy in the family, was very cheeky, and was very down to earth, she continued.
Everyone’s hearts have been left with a gaping hole by him. He’s with my sister and with my nana now.
‘As long as he’s at peace, then that’s what matters.’