THE BODY of a man found in a garden last week has been identified as much-loved family man Benjamin Browning.
The sad discovery was made in Madeley Road, Ealing, last Tuesday (June 22). The 33-year-old father-of-three had not been heard from since December 11 last year.
When they realised something was wrong his parents, Angela and Mike Browning, travelled 300 miles from their home in the Lake district to look for their son, who lived in Sherwood Close West Ealing.
They were too upset to talk to the Gazette this week but speaking in January during their search, Mrs Browning said: "We couldn’t get hold of him by phone, nobody could. Then he missed seeing his children, which he does every Sunday, and we began to get concerned.
"It’s completely out of character for him to be out of touch with his family. There are no issues, nothing that couldn’t have been solved, no reason why he would go missing.
"He’s very outgoing, very sociable and very well liked at his job at MarketOne, a marketing company in Hammersmith Bridge Road, Hammersmith, and he has a wide group of friends in Ealing who have been doing a lot of legwork trying to find him."
A Facebook group set up to help track him down had 1,400 members.
Benjamin was a recovering alcoholic and was still affected by the death of his younger brother in a car accident 14 years ago. But his parents said he was coping well and had a good support network.
At the time his father added: "If anything has happened to Benjamin then that's two out of our three children which is very difficult to cope with."
Ealing CID are still investigating the circumstances around Benjamin's death. They refused to comment whether it was being treated as suspicious or whether Benjamin died recently.
Anyone with any information should call Ealing CID on 020 8246 2020.
