The family of a Cork man who had been missing since 1992 said they found “closure” after learning that he passed away two years ago in the UK. The man died of natural causes 34 years after his disappearance.

Patrick O’Sullivan was last seen by his family in Lombardstown, Co Cork, in April 2022. He disappeared on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. He had been working as a chef in Killarney, Co Kerry, and was due to come home for a christening. However, he never turned up, and his family never saw him again.

Over the three decades since his disappearance, O’Sullivan’s family collaborated with members of An Garda Síochána in efforts to locate the Cork man, with limited updates on the missing person’s case.

Then on August 7 this year, Patrick’s brother Jerry O’Sullivan was summoned by gardaí. The officers revealed that they finally had an update on the case, as Patrick had been located deceased in the UK.

Patrick had emigrated to the UK and changed his name in 1995 to Patrick Aldridge, which was the surname of his then partner, who died in 2022. This change contributed to the lack of leads in the case.

The family believes that Patrick decided to start a new life in the UK because being gay wasn’t accepted in Ireland at the time. He left the country one year before homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993.

Prior to his death on July 5, 2024, Patrick had been ill for a number of years and had gone partially blind. He died as a result of urinary sepsis.

Jerry O’Sullivan found out that, in the years leading up to his death, his brother was being cared for by a woman who discovered his original identity. “The person I really have to thank is the woman who looked after him,” Jerry told the Irish Examiner.

“She found a piece of paper in his flat from when he changed his name in 1995, and she kept that in the hopes of finding us.”

He added that the family still had “a lot of unanswered questions” about why Patrick decided to disappear and start a new life.

“We waited so long for this,” he said. “It is a closure for us, that we were looking [for] for so long. He died of natural causes. He had underlying health conditions and died from sepsis.

“The solace we can take is that he lived his life – and it was a good life as far as we can gather. Starting off a new life by himself and leaving everything behind him. That must not have been easy.

“We always hoped that one day he would turn up at an event we were having, or whatever the case may be. Or get a phone call. But it never happened, unfortunately for us.”