The heartbroken father of a missing Lifford man says he has not slept in four days waiting for his son to return home.
Tragic Joseph Colhoun says he has stood each night at the window of his home in Beechwood Grove waiting to begin the search for his son David each morning.
The 22 year old went missing in the early hours of last Sunday morning after fleeing police custody in Strabane after being arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
David jumped from a police car and was last seen running towards the River Mourne which separates Strabane from his home in Lifford.
Joseph, 52, whose wife Josephine only died last December, said he is going through a “living hell.”
“Nobody knows what I’m going through. It’s a living hell. I stand looking into the night each evening waiting for it to clear again so I can search again in the morning. I try to sleep but I waken up straight away dreaming.
“I know that David is not coming home now. He would have contacted me if he could. He has never done this before. I just want people to help me get him home,” he said.
Hundreds of local people have been assisting the Colhoun family to try to find missing David.
However Mr Colhoun says he cannot understand why there has been a distinct lack of help coming from the PSNI and to a lesser extent the Gardai in trying to locate David.
So far no PSNI divers have taken part in the search leading the Colhoun family to hire their own personal divers from Dundalk to search for David.
The PSNI say they will try and send divers to the scene today (FRI) but have stressed there is a problem with the lack of visibility in the water.
Gardai have deployed some members to the scene but say that because Mr Colhoun went missing outside their jurisdiction, it is a matter for the PSNI.
Joseph Colhoun added “I just cannot understand why there has been such a lack of cooperation with my family over the past four days since David has gone missing.
“He was not a criminal. He was only arrested for being drunk and disorderly which is not a major crime.
“The Gardai have contacted me to explain their situation. But I think the PSNI could be doing more and I don’t know why they aren’t,” he said.
Local Cllr Frank McBrearty said people are taking their own lives in their hand searching for David because of the lack of a co-ordinated search.
“This is a very dangerous area. While I think it’s great that local people have given their support to the Colhoun family, the last thing we want is another tragedy happening.
“I have been at the site of the search and what I saw was a distinct lack of any co-ordination in the search. The efforts of the Gardai and especially the PSNI are questionable to say the least,” he said.
As well as hiring their own divers, David’s distraught girlfriend Nicole McConnell has also hired a clairvoyant to try and locate her missing boyfriend’s whereabouts.
To see other stories on David Colhoun’s disappearance see
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