Heartbroken family of 71-year-old man watch footage of him vanishing in Sydney shopping centre
Retired barber Bernard Gore, 71, was on a three-week trip to Sydney with his wife of 50 years, Angela, to visit one of their three adult children in December 2016.
The couple were staying in their daughter’s apartment in Woollahra, in the city’s east and planned to return to his home in Tasmania on January 11, 2017.
However on January 6, 2017, Mr Gore set off for a day trip to Westfield Bondi Junction at 12:30 Pm.
His final moments were recorded on CCTV footage, which showed him on his 15- minute walk past a number of shops along Oxford St before he went into the shopping centre.
Footage from inside the shopping centre shows him walking inside at 12.48pm, up the incline of level four and through door L407 at 12.50pm.
This footage has been shown to his family for the first time, with Mr Gore’s daughter, Melinda, beginning to cry as she saw her father disappear from sight on the TV screens in the NSW Coroners Court in Lidcombe on Monday morning.
“There is no further CCTV footage of Bernard after the time Bernard entered the fire stairs,” counsel assisting the coroner, Anna Mitchelmore SC, said.
When Mr Gore initially disappeared, his wife searched through the areas they usually visited before returning home at 2pm.
His family became “increasingly worried” as it got darker and reported him missing to police at 8pm. Later that night they also reported him missing to Woolworths and Westfield security.
“Tragically, (it was) not until around 8 am on January 27, 2017, that Bernard was found deceased in the fire stairs,” Ms Mitchelmore said.
“His body was found by a maintenance worker at the bottom of the stairwell he had entered.”
She said it had been “immensely distressing for his family” who had wondered for weeks where their beloved family member was gone.
“Only for him to be found at the place for which he had set off on January 6,” Ms Mitchelmore said.
She said the 71-year-old was found lying in a “semi-kneeling position” in the stairwell.
“It appears that he had been sitting on a chair that was found near his body, and at some stage he had fallen forward and off the chair.”
He was found along with his white hat, a handkerchief, dentures, glasses case and a $5 note.
The court was told Mr Gore had gone missing once before in Hobart.
His son, Mark, had bought him a watch which had a GPS tracking device but Mr Gore hadn’t worn it on the day he went missing as it wasn’t working.
His daughter, Melinda, had also given him a copy of her address and contact details on that day.
Records obtained from the shopping centre showed the push-button exit door at the bottom of the stairwell was not opened once in the three-week period between when Mr Gore went missing and when his body was discovered.
No alarm was activated.
He was taking medication for hypertension and a mild cognitive impairment at the time of his death.
The married couple had “more or less had a routine when they attended Westfield,” Ms Mitchelmore said.
Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee is this week overseeing a five-day inquest into Mr Gore’s death.
A forensic entomologist analysed data that “indicated to him Bernard died a minimum of one to two weeks before his body was found,” according to Ms Mitchelmore.
The issues due to be explored are the adequacy of the review of CCTV footage, the physical searches conducted by Westfield security and police, and the signage – both painted and illuminated – in the stairwell.
Ms Mitchelmore said she anticipates the inquest will hear there was no ‘Code Grey’ - the centre’s missing person procedure - called on January 6 or 7.
“It’s likely that it was a more informal search as opposed to a search ... by a Code Grey.”
The inquest will also investigate why police and security formed the view in the early stages of their investigation that Mr Gore had never arrived at Westfield.
“The intention is to always conduct a coronial investigation in a thorough and comprehensive way,” Mr Lee said.
“It’s also the aim to identify whether there have been any shortcomings or deficiencies.
“Not for the purpose of assigning blame or fault (but) whether some important lessons can be learned from an otherwise traumatic event.”