The body of James Malcolm Green, 41, an active member of the local community, father and husband, was found this morning after a community search on Putney Common.
Wandsworth Police issued a missing person appeal on Wednesday evening. Within hours, dozens of neighbours had formed a WhatsApp group and arranged to meet at Kaffee on Lower Richmond Road at 10am to search the common and nearby cemetery.
James was found shortly afterwards, a short walk from the café. Emergency services including multiple ambulances, fire crews and police attended. His family were present and the WhatsApp group closed shortly afterwards.
His family’s appeal had noted that James was a type 1 diabetic who had last been seen on Putney Common in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
All Saints’ Church, where James had been elected to the District Church Council earlier this year, has opened its doors for anyone who needs to light a candle, say a prayer, or speak to someone. An evening prayer was held at 5pm this evening.
The Met police provided the following statement:
“On Thursday, 4 June at 10:16hrs police were notified by the London Ambulance Service about an unresponsive man at Putney Lower Common.
Officers attended alongside paramedics and a 41-year-old man was sadly declared dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed and formal identification awaits.
His death is being treated as unexpected but is not believed to be suspicious at this time. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.
The man had been reported to police as a missing person on Wednesday, 3 June, with a number of enquiries carried out. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
If you are affected by anything in this article, Samaritans are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org.
Note from the Editor: We originally posted this story at 2pm in order to give people sufficient notice of the All Saints Church evening prayer. Several readers contacted us to let us know about some immediate sensitivities and so in order to give time for them to be addressed we took the story down and republished it at 6pm with an additional statement from the Met. I would like to thank those members of our community who got in touch.
