The wife of a man who has been missing for six weeks says she is living a nightmare and is starting to fear the worst. With the help of her friends and family, Phyllis Stewart is trying to get ‘missing person’ posters all over the island, in a last ditch effort at locating her loved one.
Thomas Stewart disappeared on 20 May while he was being held at Mount Carmel Hospital. In an interview with The Malta Independent, Phyllis had described what led to the ordeal. She said her husband had been unable to sleep for a number of days and went to see a doctor. She then received a call informing her that Thomas was going to be taken to Mount Carmel. Mrs Stewart said her husband suffered from diabetes but had no known mental health issues. “I couldn't understand why he was taken to Mount Carmel hospital."
She was told that her husband “felt like killing himself” but Mrs Stewart believed this to be untrue. Two days into his stay at Mount Carmel, Mrs Stewart was visiting her husband and the two were walking around the gardens. She told him the staff would not let him leave for fear that he would take his own life. "So he was agitated walking up and down, looking at the trees. The next thing I know, he jumps on to this tree and he was over the wall. That was it. That was the last time I saw my husband." Mrs Steward says there were no nurses watching over her husband.
Six weeks later, she is becoming increasingly more desperate at what she says is a lack of interest by the police. “There have been no developments from the last time we spoke. The police don’t seem to be very interested. I have just sent an email to the Police Commissioner asking him for help because I personally don’t think they’re doing anything.”
Mrs Stewart says she had not been contacted at all by the police and has not even been interviewed. Instead of keeping her informed, the police expect her to chase them for information.
Six weeks into the ordeal, frustration is building up. “I have no idea where my husband is. This is just a nightmare basically. I’ve got the support of family and friends and there’s always been someone with me but they still have jobs to go to.”
To add to her worries, Thomas was carrying nothing when he disappeared. “I have his money, his passport and his ID card. I don’t know how he’s managing, if he’s still alive. I’m sorry to say that but when you’ve come this far things begin to go through your mind and you just don’t know.”
“I’ve done all I can. I’ve ruffled as many feathers as I can I’m just getting nowhere. I’ve been in contact with the ministry of health, I’ve been in contact with everybody and they don’t care. They’re not going to find him with a random patrol car, they have to go out and look for him.”
Asked if the police had actually mounted a proper search since her husband’s disappearance, Mrs Stewart says: “According to them they did. The one time that he was seen and someone called the police, they didn’t get there in time so he went. He obviously wasn’t himself. I think he didn’t know where he was and what he was doing.”
A distraught Mrs Stewart said she had received a call from the Health Ministry. “They seemed to think they are off the hook because it was a private doctor who referred Thomas to Mount Carmel. But they’re not. They are the ones who let him go. There were no nurses with him in the garden.”
The poster, she says, is the last resort. “I’ve tried everything. My family has tried everything.”
“I have to get on with my life. We put all our money into retiring in Malta. We’ve been here for 15 years and own an apartment. I like Malta and I don’t want to go back but it doesn’t give you a lot of faith when you don’t get any help. I’m trying not to break down, which is very difficult.”
In the previous interview Mrs Stewart said the doctors should have taken her husband to Mater Dei to find out what the problem was rather than fill him full of pills at “horrible” Mount Carmel. The family is asking anyone who might come across Thomas to tell him that they will, under no circumstances, allow him to be taken back to Mount Carmel.
A police spokesperson said yesterday that the search for Mr Stewart was ongoing.