Sofia echo Thu, Oct 15 2009

A 52-year-old British national was found dead on the premises of a private company in the village of Saraya, police from the town of Pazardjik, central Bulgaria, said on October 15 2009.

According to a police bulletin, the man's death was a suicide.

Around noon on October 14 police were tipped off about two burning motor vehicles in Saraya village.

Firefighters were sent to extinguish the fire but when police officers arrived at the scene they found the dead body of the British national who had been living in the area for the past few months.

Police believe that he set the two vehicles on fire, then tried to set a nearby building on fire. He subsequently killed himself.

There were no signs of physical abuse to his body, police said.

Very sad this is

Does anyone have any more information about this? it all sounds very sad so far but there must be something that drove this person to this ?

This is the Standart story I translated it with Google :oops: :oops:

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Pazardzhik

Pazarzhdishkoto tragedy shook the village of Saraya, after 52-year British citizen attempted to ignite a fish farm, and burned two cars of its owner and then hanged himself with laced Bible.

Timothy John was born in Zimbabwe, at first lived in England where he obtained British citizenship, but by ten years lived in Bulgaria.

"
Stories that he had been asleep in the monasteries and the Bible, but oddly talked about suicide and believed in another life"
, said company owner victim "
Fishkorp Ltd. Cyril Vidinov.

British businessman strange shelter three months ago. Foreigner helped him to feed his rare fish farm to feed and casting troughs.

The drama played out between 9 and 10 pm on Wednesday, when Timothy decided to finish with him. Before that he tried to poison all the fish with oil holding, dropped bottles of gas, all awash with gasoline aggregates and spontaneous ignition.

Tied with a Bible in his body, Britain climbed to one of wind turbine. Sisal throw around your neck and as I burned, hanged himself.

"
We drank beer and all his talk of suicide seems ridiculous"
, said the "
Standard"
Vidinov owner.

Firemen rescued a big bang, came after a warning as the neighbor. Damages are calculated, but the businessman claimed he had lost hundreds of thousands of BGN feed, breeding stock of white fish katfish and fixtures. Moreover, he parted with his brand new cars, Renault and Skoda. Police say whether the man was in the sect, but apparently fulfilled its promise to commit suicide, says Vidinov.

Borislav Petrov

RIP Timothy John

Hello

Please, is anyone out there able to provide more information on this news item, about which there was some chat on this forum in 2009, ref:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... c&
start=14

Timothy John could be the brother a Zimbabwean family has been looking for over many years and any help in establishing this would be much appreciated.

I have tried the British Embassy in Bulgaria - response was they cannot divulge info on a citizen - and I have also contacted the Bulgaria English radio and newspapers, but so far no response.

Thanks and best wishes,
Mary Harper
(ex Zimbabwe, now UK)

Can you tell us a little more about this person, perhaps where you think he lived in Bg, the more information you post het the more chance of someone knowing something?

Forgive me for asking but this guy committed suicide? sometime back so what is it you are trying top find out? and what is it you want from us members? ie how can we help now that this person isn't with us anymore, the reason I ask all this is because no matter what you learn unless you are directly related to this person no matter what anyone tells you, you will not be allowed to gather any information from any of the authorities as you have already found out. but if we can help we will but we need to know a little more about him, some people come to Bulgaria for all sorts of reasons and in some cases it's to escape their past thus they will use a different name locally so the more you can tell us about him the better.

I have moved and merged this topic for the sake of continuity

Thank you Davshaz for your reply and interest.

Basically I am hoping to find someone who actually knew this man personally, or someone who knows the farmer or neighbours where he worked. Somone who could provide personal information, a description of him - eg did he have a stammer - and something about his background other than he was born in Zimbabwe and became a British citizen. He was supposedly in Bulgaria for 10 years - surely in that time the people who knew him must have learnt something about his family and earlier life. I can provide details of his life up to 1979, plus photos of him as a child and one of his elder sister today, who is said to have been very like him when he was young.

Ok that's a start, what did he do for a living? Is Timothy John his full name ?

The man I am looking for, on behalf of his family, was born Timothy John Bennetts. When he was aged about 5/6 his mother died and he was adopted by a family called Grassie. He was known as Timothy John Grassie through his school days. We have learnt he worked for a short while after leaving school on a farm at Gatooma (Kadoma) in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and we have confirmation that he was in the army (National Service) in Rhodesia in 1979.

He apparently cut all ties with the Grassie family after leaving school and it seems he simply disappeared after he left the army, so I cannot tell you what he did with his life after 1979. His two older, biological sisters from the Bennetts family have not seen him since his adoption in 1966, and it is they who are desperately searching for him.

Ok we now have a little bit more to go on. One very important question is......... Do you know that he moved to Bulgaria?

No, we know nothing of our Timothy John's movements after 1979. I came across the 2009 discussion about the suicide in Bulgaria when I was searching the internet using TJ's name. When I read that he was a Zimbabwean before taking British citizenship, and that he was about the right age, I wondered if there was a chance that this was our man. There has been a big campaign around the world by Zimbabweans and ex-Zimbabweans to help his sisters find him, but so far no information has come to light.

harperwight wrote:

The man I am looking for, on behalf of his family, was born Timothy John Bennetts. When he was aged about 5/6 his mother died and he was adopted by a family called Grassie. He was known as Timothy John Grassie through his school days. We have learnt he worked for a short while after leaving school on a farm at Gatooma (Kadoma) in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and we have confirmation that he was in the army (National Service) in Rhodesia in 1979.

He apparently cut all ties with the Grassie family after leaving school and it seems he simply disappeared after he left the army, so I cannot tell you what he did with his life after 1979. His two older, biological sisters from the Bennetts family have not seen him since his adoption in 1966, and it is they who are desperately searching for him.

Hi harperwrght thank you for your post and I am sure anyone that has info will come forward hwoever, please could you intorduce yourself here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] then we cal all welcome you properely.

I have done as much research as |I can even spoken to a Policeman I know but it all seems very hush hush so I am afraid I can't help. but good luck with your search