British rock star who disappeared in 90's reportedly living on kibbutz
Richey’s sister confirmed in the book, set to be released January 31, that he had wanted to visit Israel before he disappeared, and he sported a tattoo on his arm featuring the word “Jerusalem.”
By DAVID BRINNTHE MANIC STREET Preachers in the early 1990s with Richey Edwards (middle center). (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
It may not have been his design for life, but a new book claims that Richey Edwards, the one-time guitarist for the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers who disappeared in 1995 and was officially “presumed dead” in 2008, is actually living on a kibbutz in Israel.Edwards vanished at age 27 when the Manics, as their fan base calls them, were already becoming household names in Britain. Although the quartet carried on as a trio and reached even greater heights of popularity, the mystery of Edwards’s disappearance was never solved.A new book, Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the Truth about Richey Manic – written by Sara Hawys Roberts and Leon Noakes, and with the cooperation of Edwards’s sister, Rachel – suggests that the guitarist may have carefully planned his disappearance and made his way to Israel, British media reported.Richey’s sister confirmed in the book, set to be released January 31, that he had wanted to visit Israel before he disappeared, and he sported a tattoo on his arm featuring the word “Jerusalem.”The book also details a meeting between Edwards and an unnamed woman at Cardiff’s Whitchurch Hospital, who later moved to Israel.“By coincidence, the link came up again when co-author Leon went for a haircut in Cardiff and started talking about Richey,” WalesOnline reported.“The lady cutting his hair said ‘he’s actually living in a kibbutz in Israel, everybody knows,’” co-author Roberts told the website. “We gave this theory no particular credence until Rachel raised the same idea – yes, Richey had been going on about heading to that part of the world just before he vanished.”A police spokesman confirmed to WalesOnline that the investigation into Edwards’s disappearance remains open. Edwards went missing from the Embassy Hotel in central London on February 1, 1995. His car was found next to a nearby bridge two weeks later.If Edwards indeed started a new life in Israel, it’s unlikely his former bandmates will find him. They appear on Roger Waters’s list of performers who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against performing in the country.
