Glen Godfrey, 38, was reported missing to Surrey Police on December 22, 2024, and his body was found in the King George VI Reservoir in Staines six months later
The family of a missing man say they drank water from the same reservoir where his body had been decomposing for six months before he was found dead.
Glen Godfrey was reported missing to Surrey Police by his mother, Denise, on December 22, 2024. The 38-year-old, from Ashford in Surrey, was last seen on CCTV in Staines town centre on December 4.
His body was found in the King George VI Reservoir in Staines on May 13 – six months after he was reported missing. But Glen’s family have now criticised the police’s response after the force reassured them the reservoir had been searched.
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They say Surrey Police told them he was “100 per cent not in the water” after experts explained he would have resurfaced after 37 days. The reservoir, which is located near Heathrow Airport, belongs to Thames Water and supplies drinking water across the capital.
Thames Water insisted they have no concerns for the quality of water supplied by the reservoir and stressed they carry out tests regularly as part of their routine activity.
Glen’s heartbroken family have now hit out at Surrey Police, with his cousin Amy Gill claiming officers were “dismissive” in their investigation. She also accused the police of failing to question to people who were allegedly with Glen before he disappeared and saw him jump into the water. They were never treated as persons of interest in the man’s disappearance.
Amy told The Sun: “We, as a family and as a community, were drinking water from the very reservoir where Glen’s body was decomposing. Glen’s body was finally discovered in the reservoir, a body of water that police had repeatedly assured us had been thoroughly searched twice.
“We’ve begged the police for answers and transparency, but they’ve been extremely dismissive.” She claimed the police “don’t want” to tell the family what they found in the post-mortem exam, which she thinks could help Glen’s loved ones understand “what happened to him.”
She added: “We were told by water recovery experts that Glen was 100 per cent not in the reservoir, claiming that flotation occurs after 37 days. And yet, Glen was later found right there.” Glen’s family resorted to taking matters into their own hands while looking for him – privately funding specialist search teams and search dogs that “signalled Glen’s presence in the reservoir” months before his body was found.
However, according to Amy, the police “dismissed these indications as ‘just silts of mud’.” Amy also alleged Surrey Police would delete or edit Facebook posts they published after the community began asking “questions why they didn’t check properly.”
The heartbroken family is now calling for the creation of Glen’s Law, which would create “a national framework to ensure immediate, professional, and effective responses to all missing persons cases.” In response to the family’s accusations, Surrey Police said it “carried out a robust investigation to initially find Glen, and subsequently when his body was found, to rule out any third party involvement in his death.”
The force added it also “explored various lines of enquiry”, carried out interviews and released public appeals. It said that after Glen was reported missing, officers “conducted extensive searches in the vicinity of where he was last sighted” which “included using specialist search and rescue teams, underwater sonar equipment and dive teams to assist in finding him.”
Surrey Police said the matter “is now an investigation that will continue by the Surrey Coroner.” An inquest will also take place in due course. The police added the family can use their complaints process if they remain unsatisfied with the force.
A Thames Water spokesperson told The Mirror: “Our thoughts are with the family of the individual found at one of our reservoirs. We take the quality of our water extremely seriously and continually carry out tests as part of our routine activity.
“We have no water quality concerns for the supply area for this reservoir. We would like to assure customers, water is held in our reservoirs before going through a rigorous treatment process which is then pumped to customers’ homes.
“Our water is among the highest quality drinking water in the world – and since 2010 more than 99.95% of tests taken from customers’ taps met the standard required by UK legislation. Every year we carry out more than 500,000 tests, taking samples from source to tap.”
The Mirror has contacted Surrey Police for further comment.