The body of rugby league player, Bryn Hargreaves, has been found more than a year after he vanished from his West Virginian apartment.
A statement on Facebook, posted by Gareth Hargreaves – Bryn’s older brother – on Sunday, read: ‘RIP Bryn Hargreaves. With incredible sadness I can confirm that after 14 months we have finally found Bryn.’
The statement continued: ‘We still do not know the cause of death or what actually happened on 3/1/22. Thanks to all those that have helped in the search.’
Hargreaves, a former Wigan, St Helens and Bradford rugby league star, went missing from his apartment in the US in early January last year, where he had been working in the oil and gas industry following his retirement from professional rugby.
The disappearance was reported by Hargreaves’s employer when he failed to arrive for work. A widespread search involving police and tracker dogs was implemented, but efforts were unsuccessful.
The circumstances of Hargreaves’s disappearance are somewhat mysterious. When police arrived at his apartment following the call from Hargreaves’s employer, they found the door unlocked and the shower running. All of Hargreaves’s belongs were present, including his phone and laptop.
According to Gareth who spoke to the media last June, Bryn had been experiencing mental health issues before he vanished. ‘The most likely scenarios were that he decided to harm himself or had decided to disappear for a bit and come back,’ he said.
However, on discovering that his brother had left his wallet and ID in his apartment, and that on the night of his disappearance he had ‘ordered a couple of bottles of gin from a mail order firm to be delivered in the next day or two’, Gareth began to consider the possibility that ‘someone has had some input, through abduction or something along those lines’.
The cause of death and circumstances surrounding Hargreaves’s disappearance are yet to be confirmed.