Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be looking into the bizarre disappearance of Kevin Dundon in nineteen eighty. Kevin was only twenty two at the time of his disappearance and the circumstances of his disappearance alarmed his family and they have not stopped looking for him. Since this episode is about a missing person and so does not contain graphic detail, but listener discretion
is always advised. Clacton on Sea is a seaside town located on the Tendering Peninsula in the County of Essex. It's almost eighty miles from central London and around sixty miles from Southend on Sea. The town has always been associated with tourism, and since it's founding during Victorian times, many people have visited for
day trips to see the beaches and other seaside activities. This only increased when Billy Butlin, the famous entrepreneur who opened Butlin Holiday camps across the country, opened a park in Clacton on Sea. This was open until nineteen eighty three, when the public began booking more holidays abroad, and they became less popular. The Dundun family lived in the seaside town, but Paddy and Rita Dundon were originally from Ireland and had settled in the town with their children Jimmy,
Tom, Kevin, Danny and sister Jennifer. They were a close knit family growing up in the sixties and seventies, and all of the siblings were supportive of one another and got well. As Kevin grew up, his siblings described him as happy, go lucky and chilled out. He had a great sense of humor and would always make friends easily with anyone. As he approached his early twenties, his siblings explained that he was just all about enjoying himself and
doing things that made him happy. His eldest brother, Jimmy told Essex Live he worked hard and played hard. He was quiet in his own way, a bit of a joker. He left notes on the back of photos making comments and named himself King Kevin in the family. His younger brother Danny added he bought loads of records, loved his music, bought clothes, had a girlfriend and was very happy, always smiling. His hobbies were having fun, listening to music and having a drink. By nineteen eight, Kevin was twenty
three and was doing everything that someone in their early twenties and joys. He was socializing with friends, going for drinks and spending time with his girlfriend from Clacton, who had recently started dating. Everything was going well for Kevin and he had a lot to look forward to. At the time, Kevin was
employed by the Townsend Thorison Shipping Company. The Townsend Thorison Company was the name used by European Ferries to market their ferry services, but the European Fairies Group had existed since nineteen thirty five and had taken over Townsend car Ferries in nineteen fifty nine. They began to expand and by nineteen seventy six they had acquired
Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company. Felixstowe Dock is the UK's busiest container port and by nineteen seventy four Townsend Thorison had begun running twice daily ferries from Felixstowe to Zebruger in Belgium. Kevin had been working on the ferries on and off during the late seventies. In September of nineteen eighty, he had taken a job as a galleyman aboard the Viking Viscount Ferry on a round trip between Felixstowe and
Zibruger. The job wasn't glamorous and involved a lot of cleaning and maintaining the galley. However, the money was generally good, with cash in hand often given. The night before he was due to board the ship, he had stayed with his brother Tom in Ipswich. Tom would later recount he didn't want to go on that boat. He didn't like it, he didn't like the crew. He wasn't happy to go on it, but he went anyway. Tom dropped Kevin off at the port in Felixstowe to make the journey to Zebruger
on the Viking Viscount. There wasn't anything particularly concerning for Kevin's family about this job, given that Kevin had been on boats for years and this was usual for him. There was nothing to suggest that anything would happen on that trip. Despite this, Kevin's trip on the Viking Viscount would change the whole family's life forever. The first that the family heard that something wasn't quite right was
early on Monday, the twenty second of September nineteen eighty. The Viking Viscount had been on its way back into Felixstowe the day before, on the twenty first. Tom later explained that in the early hours of that Monday morning, he received a phone call. On the other end of the line was a priest from Felixstowe. This priest informed Tom that when the Viking Viscount had docked into the port, he had had a visit from a crew member from the
ship. This crew member had told him that Kevin was missing, but didn't elaborate on the circumstances. Tom stated, the padre said to me that he couldn't tell me what he said, but don't let it drop. Bad things had happened on that boat. This phone call was strange and alarming, and Tom immediately began trying to figure out if this was true or not. Had
Kevin really disappeared from the ship. Unfortunately, Tom was quickly able to corroborate that he couldn't be found and had been reported missing on the journey back from Zimbruga. This seemed impossible given that Kevin was so used to boats, and the idea of an accident didn't seem right to them. The story of what happened that night emerged. Witness statements reported that Kevin had last been seen at
around six thirty pm on Sunday the twenty first. At six pm, had been working in the plate room of the ship, and then around thirty minutes later, he was spotted exiting the galley through a door which could have taken him to either the toilets or the deck. This seemed to be the last sighting of Kevin before the ship docked into Felix Stow that night. At that
point that people began to realize that Kevin couldn't be found. It was reported that the ship operators did a small search of the boat after it had been anchored. When Kevin couldn't be found, the operators let the passengers off the boat and then informed the authorities about his disappearance. This is something which was later queried by Kevin's family, who believed that a full search should have been conducted before anyone was let off the ship, and Tom later stated that this
was in breach of maritime law. The fact that the investigation had only been cursory and the search for Kevin was small his family were worried that there hadn't been enough done to try and find him, and they were left in limbo wondering what exactly had happened. There weren't many answers forthcoming that could explain Kevin's disappearance. How had he gone missing from the boat in a relatively small time frame. The idea that Kevin may have fallen overboard was something that was quickly
brought up given the circumstances. However, there was also something odd about that. The crew reported that the weather conditions were excellent that night and the water had been extremely calm. If Kevin had been on the deck and fallen overboard,
it wasn't believed that it was because of bad weather. Kevin's brother Danny later recounted Kevin had been on boats for years, so the chances of him falling overboard were slim, they said, because of how good the weather was, perhaps two thirds of all of the passengers might have been out on deck. Anyway, the amount of people out on deck, someone would have seen something if he'd gone overboard. This, of course was not certain, but
this theory didn't completely account for Kevin's disappearance. This also seemed to conflict with the phone call that Tom had received from the priest, who spoke to a crew member from the Viking Viscount. If Kevin had fallen overboard, what terrible things were this crew member alluding to, and why had they gone to visit a priest about what had happened. The timeline of that evening was also unclear,
as were Kevin's movements on the ship. Kevin's family had explained that there was a culture of drinking on the ships during this time, and that while the crew were on their shift, they would often nip off to get a drink. They were later told that there were some passengers in the private bar that night, as they were friends with some of the crew, and before he went missing, Kevin had been messing around with some of them. Tom
later stated next thing keV was missing. He was never ever supposedly seen again. It seems incomprehensible that Kevin could have just disappeared, and his family wanted
answers. Police became involved with the investigation, and the official line was that this was a missing person investigation, given that Kevin was missing and there hadn't been any concrete evidence found to the contrary Kevin's family would later say, however, this isn't what they were told by the police during the initial investigation. Tom later recounted, I saw the Chief Constable with Dad. He was adamant Kevid being killed and asked me who I think did it? In his office.
This didn't make sense as Kevin's case hadn't been categorized as a murder inquiry, and so why the Chief Constable was telling them this didn't seem to match up. All of this led to a lot of confusion and some mistrust with Essex police. The family knew that Kevin wouldn't just disappear, and stressed this, saying that they believed that something bad must have happened to him that night
on the ship. The investigation, however, dragged on, with Kevin still being labeled a missing person with little progress seen in the investigation to find him. Kevin's family were heartbroken and stuck in limbo, not knowing what to do next. The brothers later explained that their parents, Rita and Paddy fell to pieces after Kevin's disappearance, and as years began to pass, they saw little progress and got no answers. Kevin's parents and his sister Jennifer would eventually pass
away without receiving the much needed information or clarity they desperately saw. Kevin's brothers continued to try and find their brother and tried to push the police to keep Kevin's case relevant and being investigated. This proved difficult, and the brothers have
later said they felt like the original investigation was a calamity of errors. One of these errors that couldn't be explained was that a death certificate had been issued for Kevin, despite the fact that he was still a missing person and the seven years that is usually required to declare a missing person dead had not elapsed. The family asked how this could be, but reportedly received no explanation.
Over the years and then decades that Kevin remained missing, the family were asked to identify bodies that had washed up and pulled out of bodies of water in case any of them could be Kevin. Kevin's brother Jimmy, later recounted how awful this was to witness, saying, there's nothing worse than looking at some young man lying on a table, trying to make him your brother that is not him, but trying to prove that he's not. It clearly wasn't.
Kevin's case remained unsolved, with little progress or information being published. The family remained in the dark about the situation until around two thousand and seventeen, when they received a phone call from a surprising source. Andy Guy from Norfolk and Suffolk Constabulary's Major Case Review Team got in touch with the family to say that
he was working on Kevin's disappearance as a cold case. This was a shocking but welcome intervention, given that almost forty years had passed without any progress being made. The investigation seemed to be reinvigorated at this point, with witnesses being reinterviewed and other witnesses who earned even interviewed at the time being tracked down. The Major Case Review Team flew one man over from Ireland to speak to him, and planned to speak to another couple in Cyprus who was reported may have
known what happened to Kevin. The family's DNA had also never been obtained to match to any John Doe that may be on the database, so this was also done by the new investigation. The family have since said that Suffolk Police have done a tremendous job of the reinvestigation it was going well until COVID hit and the investigators were hindered by lockdowns and being unable to travel or meet with
people face to face to do interviews. This meant that the plan to interview witnesses in Cyprus had to be done by Cypriot police rather than the Major Case Review Team. After their investigation, in interviews of these witnesses, it was deemed that there was no new evidence or anything more to be done as a result of it. This was, of course disappointing. However, Kevin's family were happy with the progress that had been made and believe that some one was
now taking it seriously. Andy Guy later commented on the case and the original investigation, saying, it isn't for me to defend or attack the police in if the family feel they didn't get a good service, then then that's fair enough. It was a different world back in the nineteen eighties. Would we do it better now? Absolutely? Some cases we look at go back to nineteen fifty eight. Nowadays we used data we just didn't get back then.
While this, of course is little comfort for Kevin's family, they do now have better links with the police than they did, and it seems as though more investigation has been done. There has been little discovered, however, and Kevin's disappearance is still unsolved. He still hasn't been found as of twenty twenty
three, over forty years after he went missing. There has been some mention over the years about the possibility of possible union involvement or even a Liverpool mafia who had some links to the disappearance, but these are all just rumors with little substance. Kevin's family have never officially commented on any of these rumors, and they are left with just rumors and no concrete information what happened that night. They're sure that Kevin wouldn't have gone missing by choice. So did an
accident happen or did someone do something to him? The phone call from the priest seemed to imply that something terrible had happened, or that was what a crew member had said. If this had happened, someone must know, and this is exactly what Kevin's family believe and continue to appeal about. Kevin's brother, Jimmy, appealed to whoever had information that could help them tell the truth. Get it off your mind. No one is getting younger. Who wants
to die with that knowledge and guilt. Why don't they help us out of our misery? Mom and Dad had to die not knowing. We would like to know the truth. We know that they know. Kevin's family had been very open about how they feel that Kevin has been forgotten about despite being at the center of their hearts and their family, and this is such a tragic thing to hear. A statement from them reads, we just have to live our lives with it being forgotten by the world. This isn't how anyone should
feel. And it's so important that all these cases are remembered and that we don't forget about Kevin's disappearance. Someone out there must know what happened or know someone that does. Kevin's case is now the longest missing person case in Essex Police's case file and it would be amazing for new information to be forthcoming and
for his family to finally know what happened to him. If you know anything about the disappearance of Kevin Dundon on board the Viking Viscount in September nineteen eighty then please contact Essex Police or off can Suffolk Police on one oh one with your information. Anything could be important. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can
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