I may have found a body in lock 87 on the Rochdale 9.

[Alan Saunders]

I also dread discovering a dead body - has not happened in 37 years on the canal. I hope yours turns out to be the bloated carcass of an animal though some would also find that very upsetting. Most upsetting are the small children strapped into pushchairs but they still have the diving reflex and can be rescued long after you or I would drown.

 

I would have been compelled to await the result - not morbid curiosity; just to know if I had been of service or wasted police time. I find it odd that they needed divers; I thought our Fire Service are now qualfied for water rescue/recovery.

 

Well done Dean, do not lose sleep over this. If you had been there earlier you may have saved a life; if you had been less vigilant you may have passed on in ignorance. They would have died if you were there or not - if I were drowning I would trust you to rescue me.

 

Alan

[nb Innisfree]

I first spoke to a lady on a police helpdesk.

Then a constable arrived on foot and I related my story.

Then a bunch arrived and a sargeant asked me for my story.

Then more vans arrived, and the detective branch arrived in plains clothes, and took my statement.

Then more police arrived, and the divers, and 2 went into the lock, and the word came back that yes...it's a body.

Then I had to get into an official police van and sign written statements, in case it's murder and I need to give evidence in court.

They now have a big white tent next to the lock, and we are moored up, with a policeman outside the boat stopping anyone coming along the footpath.

There's a crowd in Canal Street watching the whole thing.

 

From his appearance, it seems his hood/raincoat hood, was around his face...so it could have been raining and he slipped and fell in. If you're drunk, in a lock, in the dark, and dont know there are ladders, I reckon you're in trouble. That lock is not a towpath thoroughfare at all......so it is a bit strange. For anyone to be around that lock...it does make sense that he may have fallen from the (barricaded) Canal Street side.

It's my personal experience that being directly involved in these kind of incidents affects some more than others, luckily I was never affected badly and was able to rationalise it but some find it difficult to do that, but talking about it as you are doing does help, better than trying to push it away.

 

Steady now, you haven't seen one of his wiring diagrams yet...

 

Richard

Now that does make me shudder...

[Ruth Seneviratne]

Dean have just read all this. We are moored in Piccadilly basin. If you need a hand coming up the locks just shout.

[cheshire~rose]

Oh dear Dean, How horrible.

 

We all go about our lives and then something like this happens that stops us in our tracks and causes such shock . I don't think any of us would have have liked to be in your shoes today.

 

Try not to dwell on it. Much easier for me to say from here than you to do but. Just focus on the reminder that none of us know how long we have left on this earth so make the most of it while you can.

 

My heart goes out to the poor family who may have already got the knock at the door.

[John Holden]

Dean's location is the bit of the Rochdale where BW spent countless thousands putting up a glass wall so people couldn't fall into the canal

 

It wasn't actually to stop people falling in the canal, just to make it more difficult to fall in by accident.

It's crazy siting the heart of the cities night-life around a canal that s considerably below road level.

I shudder to think how many have lost their lives to that stretch of canal over the last decade or so.

 

Sleep well Dean.

[DeanS]

Thanks for your concern

The update is that they dont know if it was an accident or not, so the place is in lock down overnight, and we're staying put, with a policeman outside the boat, stopping towpath traffic. Not the place I would ever choose to moor overnigtht, but should be ok within the police cordons.

[pelicanafloat]

Didn't expect that. Am not sure how i/we would cope ... prob badly. Sounds trivial, I know but, "We shall pray" ..............

[Alan Saunders]

... Then I had to get into an official police van and sign written statements, in case it's murder and I need to give evidence in court. ...

That ominous caution "You do not have to say anything but anythng you do say will be written down and may be given as evidence ... !"

 

Only "I am arresting you ..." or "if you are later charged with a crime", "and have not mentioned when questoned" is absent; the average, law abiding citizen immediately believes that they are the prime suspect, especially if they watch crime drama on TV.

 

Thus the dubious members of society will pass on by and see nothing. Whatever his electrical or draugtmanship abilites,Dean is a top bloke!

 

Chances are that Dean will only be reqiured as a witness in Court if the victim was murdered by the Mafia :-)

Attendng Court is a pain - they pay only minimal expenses (e.g. not car parking). My ex did £600 of damage to our Volvo in the car park when she was late as a witness to a burglary -she was not called.

 

Alan

[Southern Star]

Thanks for your concern

The update is that they dont know if it was an accident or not, so the place is in lock down overnight, and we're staying put, with a policeman outside the boat, stopping towpath traffic. Not the place I would ever choose to moor overnigtht, but should be ok within the police cordons.

It's too early to speculate, that is what the Police are for, but condolences to the poor man's family.

[Barry]

I find it odd that they needed divers; I thought our Fire Service are now qualfied for water rescue/recovery.

 

 

Some fire services have a water rescue team, not all. Their remit does not extend to beneath the surface.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Bazza2

[pelicanafloat]

Was out walking with the dogs one bright sunny morning and came across a scene, a local lad was hanging from a branch ... seems he was a bit depressed. A friend of mine came across the 'incident' a short while before I turned up and he was very very upset. No surprise. The police turned up and nothing more really, just a feeling of wishing one could have turned up earlier. Friend was cut up about it for ages.

 

Advice proffered ..... "Just realise it was meant to be .... please realise, one body means more to you in this instance than 500 people stuck on a stinking boat!"

 

Hope this doesn't offend

[mrsmelly]

 

 

Some fire services have a water rescue team, not all. Their remit does not extend to beneath the surface.

Yes that is quite correct. I found 2 bodies in the Trent last year and the fire bobbies from nottingham have a very good water recovery group, the police also have one and some local police divers also turned up quickly. A couple of months ago I was pootling along and came across an old lady floating face up with just a tiny amount of her face out of the water, she looked dead but it was hard to tell so I didnt try to retrieve her as we could well have pushed her under the water so I called it in. The police were there very quickly again and I left a lifering near the body and directed them in, she had been in the water for an hour but was in fact alive and recovered fully but very sadly 3 weeks later she was found drowned at the bottom of Stoke lock, she obviously hadnt wanted saving the first time , very sad. I have seen many, many dead bodies in many circumstances and it is a sad fact that after a while they cause no upset or worry on finding.

 

Tim

[adam1uk]

I first spoke to a lady on a police helpdesk.

Then a constable arrived on foot and I related my story.

Then a bunch arrived and a sargeant asked me for my story.

Then more vans arrived, and the detective branch arrived in plains clothes, and took my statement.

Then more police arrived, and the divers, and 2 went into the lock, and the word came back that yes...it's a body.

Then I had to get into an official police van and sign written statements, in case it's murder and I need to give evidence in court.

They now have a big white tent next to the lock, and we are moored up, with a policeman outside the boat stopping anyone coming along the footpath.

There's a crowd in Canal Street watching the whole thing.From his appearance, it seems his hood/raincoat hood, was around his face...so it could have been raining and he slipped and fell in. If you're drunk, in a lock, in the dark, and dont know there are ladders, I reckon you're in trouble. That lock is not a towpath thoroughfare at all......so it is a bit strange. For anyone to be around that lock...it does make sense that he may have fallen from the (barricaded) Canal Street side.

GMP's approach seems very different from the Warwickshire force, when we found a body in the canal a couple of years ago. I was impressed that police were there before we'd finished mooring, and plenty more officers arrived. But we waited about an hour before a country bobby came along to take some details, then said we could go. The canal was closed for a while so they could recover the body, but that was behind us so we could carry on. We didn't hear any more about it. It is quite a shocking thing to see, and I think about it every time I see something floating in the water up ahead.

[David Mack]

The story has just made it to the 10.00 news on Radio 4. "Following a tip-off by a member of the public..."

[ditchcrawler]

The papers have dropped body in a bag and are now going for a part drained canal http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-find-body-floating-canal-6146961

[DeanS]

Apparently the fire service can be called if someone heard a splosh, but if there's no splosh, the police have to keep the investigation "in house" which involves calling for their own divers. They have centralised their divers to cover a large area, so they had to travel from Liverpool to jump in the lock.

 

All in all, the police response was excellent. Forensics teams crawling all over the place.

Edited October 6, 2013 by DeanS

[Guest]

The papers have dropped body in a bag and are now going for a part drained canal http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-find-body-floating-canal-6146961

What utter ameturish journalism - I thought you needed a degree to write for a newspaper....I'll now hand over to our dog as he I'm sure could do a better job.

[DeanS]

The papers have dropped body in a bag and are now going for a part drained canal http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-find-body-floating-canal-6146961

 

It was never drained. Where do they thumbsuck these things. It was overflowing over the top gates the whole time.

The papers have dropped body in a bag and are now going for a part drained canal http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-find-body-floating-canal-6146961

 

That's our boat....under the bridge. We had to move the boat back out, and then they closed the gates to stop the body moving out the lock...

If they close that other lock gate, the balance beam will knock the whole tent into the lock....

 

The big white truck is the diving team's van....from Liverpool.

Edited October 6, 2013 by DeanS

[RLWP]

I like this bit:

 

 

An eye witness said he saw people on a canal boat stop at the lock and then peer into the water.

It is believed the people on the boat called the police and were later seen being interviewed by officers.

 

Thankfully, we know more than this.

 

Richard

[PhilR]

 

It was never drained. Where do they thumbsuck these things. It was overflowing over the top gates the whole time.

 

As usual the press just do the minimum effort to get a story......... and try to sensationalise it with lots of references to Gay Village etc.

 

But, more importantly Dean, I hope you and yours get a reasonable nights rest. If you have to overnight in one of the pounds on the Nine it won't be too bad in the scheme of things. I'm sure you will all be perfectly safe, despite other emotions about the experience which I am sure you all have!

[John Holden]

What utter ameturish journalism - I thought you needed a degree to write for a newspaper....I'll now hand over to our dog as he I'm sure could do a better job.

 

The Manchester Evening News used to be a good newspaper! Since it was taken over by the Mirror group it has gone steadily down hill. Now I suspect many of the writers don't even have O level English, let alone a university degree.

Worst of all for a local newspaper few, if any, seem to have any local knowledge.

[comfortably numb]

Dean I feel for you mate. Years ago I came upon a body in a shallow river when walking to work and it wasn't a nice experience. You do get over it obviously but it's particularly harrowing at the time. Then I had to attend the inquest and see the relatives mourning their loved one. Very sad. The guy in question, a 37 year old had tried to take a short cut back from the pub and had fallen in. The problem was it was a canalised part of the river going through the city centre and it was a 20 foot drop.

 

When descending Farmers Bridge Locks in Birmingham yesterday morning we were prevented by the police from proceeding past Snow Hill because a man's body had been discovered in the canal. Thankfully we didn't have to see it because it was discovered half an hour before we got there. We expected to be held up for hours but surprisingly they let us through after an hour. I don't think there were any suspicious circumstances so this might have been why. Strangely I can't find anything about it in the local press.

[Alan Saunders]

 

It was never drained. Where do they thumbsuck these things. It was overflowing over the top gates the whole time.

I am anxious to read the truth from a certain infamous canal website that always has an exclusive and will reveal the truth but I cannot remember their name and cannot find them on Google. Maybe that's because Dean is now a widebeamer?

 

Dean, glad to hear that you seem in good spirits (literally?).

[ditchcrawler]

I am anxious to read the truth from a certain infamous canal website that always has an exclusive and will reveal the truth but I cannot remember their name and cannot find them on Google. Maybe that's because Dean is now a widebeamer?

 

Dean, glad to hear that you seem in good spirits (literally?).

Just checked their web site, nothing there yet

[DeanS]

Forensics seem to have finished their work and they'll be moving the body soon. It's been in the yellow/white tent till now. I imagine this might mean the attending towpath police may leave the scene, leaving us moored with 1 other boater in the pound. Hope it's an uneventful night.