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Getting something removed from a website re. my brother's death
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Hi, first a bit of background for those that don't know.
My brother went missing after a night out on January 15th, this year.
Four days later he was found in the river where he had drowned.
(I made a thread here when he first went missing.)
Now, for obvious reasons, once in a while I will google him, and a couple of months ago, before the inquest, I found a link many pages down on a google search that had my brother's name on it, and I thought I'd take a look as I had not seen the link before, and what I found was, to be honest I thought, pretty distasteful.
Firstly the website name and URL are pretty disgusting. Then after a little scrolling, I find that they have my brother listed as a 'suspicious case'.
From what I can gather it is a collection of missing persons, which many are later found dead, and they seem to have it in their heads that 'something' suspicious is going on.
Obviously they are totally off the mark (and their heads).
I emailed them several weeks ago and politely asked for them to remove my brother from the page he is on (LINK removed). But after checking their main page often, it seems it hasn't been updated for a while. (April seems to be the last time the site was updated)..
So my question is, how can I have my brother removed from the site without getting in contact with the site owner?
If I am totally honest, this thing is playing on my mind, and it is really upsetting and distressing. I daren't tell my Mum about it, as it would really upset her.
Thank you in advance!
My brother went missing after a night out on January 15th, this year.
Four days later he was found in the river where he had drowned.
(I made a thread here when he first went missing.)
Now, for obvious reasons, once in a while I will google him, and a couple of months ago, before the inquest, I found a link many pages down on a google search that had my brother's name on it, and I thought I'd take a look as I had not seen the link before, and what I found was, to be honest I thought, pretty distasteful.
Firstly the website name and URL are pretty disgusting. Then after a little scrolling, I find that they have my brother listed as a 'suspicious case'.
From what I can gather it is a collection of missing persons, which many are later found dead, and they seem to have it in their heads that 'something' suspicious is going on.
Obviously they are totally off the mark (and their heads).
I emailed them several weeks ago and politely asked for them to remove my brother from the page he is on (LINK removed). But after checking their main page often, it seems it hasn't been updated for a while. (April seems to be the last time the site was updated)..
So my question is, how can I have my brother removed from the site without getting in contact with the site owner?
If I am totally honest, this thing is playing on my mind, and it is really upsetting and distressing. I daren't tell my Mum about it, as it would really upset her.
Thank you in advance!
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Comments
By your own admission you actively went looking for anything relating to him. If you know when you find something it's going to upset you, why bother looking?
As for getting whatever it is you want removed - I suppose you could employ a solicitor and get them to make contact - as for if there is a legal case to answer I don't know.
To be honest, I think the best you can do is ask. The person running the web page clearly has this idea that the deaths of young men in the US and the UK is a murder conspiracy, and the info they're using is public domain.
If you can't convince them to take the references to your brother down, then I don't think there's really anything that you can do about it.
Obviously I am not going to search the internet forever, as you put it, and unless you are put in to the same situation you cannot say that you would never do the same.
Thank you, I hadn't seen that, so I will try to email them again, though they didn't reply to my first.
I remember following your thread and I hope you and your family are holding up - rubbish like this can't help. I hope wordpress can help x
Yeah, it's worth giving it a crack. Play up to them a bit, and tell them how interesting the site is, but the fact is that the content re. your brother is upsetting you and your family, and it's hard to move on when you know something like that is out there.
Good luck
so sorry to hear about your brother. I can totally understand how you'd feel. I agree with the person who said try contacting the people hosting the site and make a complaint they can make them take it down.
Thank you so much, I will try that IF they do not respond to the second email I have just sent them.
I was really polite in the first one I sent a few weeks ago, this time I have stepped it up a little, by saying how distressing and upsetting it was, and that I haven't told my parents about it yet as it would totally break their heart, and that I'm sure that they wouldn't want to be the cause of that. Then I kinda mentioned looking in to legal action.
They have one month to reply or remove, then I will use that link you provided, so thank you!
Thank you, email already sent, was still polite, but in an angry way, hopefully they will listen this time.
Thank you so much.
It is a US site so things might be a bit more difficult, but hopefully wordpress will be able to do something if the person running the site does not.
Some people really do not think do they? Wish they would just keep their theories to themselves!
Thank you very much and yes, will be going down that route if they do not reply or remove within a month. I think I have given them enough time to do the right thing.
As hard as it is, if you get no joy from them this time, might be best to ignore it and move on.
On another note Jo, I am impressed with your work on the Waterway Safety Campaign. I hope you and your family are keeping well and looking after each other.
Problem is - you have linked the page in question and a lot of folks will now click on it and read it who otherwise would never even have known about it. That may also lead to it showing up higher on vaguely linked google searches ( I admit I don't know how these things work )
I think you should try find solace in the fact anybody who believes such a site is somebody whose opinion should not matter. There are strange people out there and there's not much that can be done about it. Although this is obviously deeply personal for you, conspiracy nuts are just a blight on our society that should be ignored and pitied.
I hope you are successful in getting your brother's details removed, Jo.
So good news all round.
I am going to see if the mods will kindly remove any mention of the site and the URL from my OP, as I really do not want to be advertising such a disgusting site.
Thank you to those who offered genuine and helful advice.