The body found at the Welsh Harp on Wednesday last week has been identified as missing 57-year-old Friern Barnet man Jerzy Madrzyk.

Mr Madrzyk, a candlemaker from Goldsmith Road, had been taken to the Dennis Scott unit at Edgware Hospital on May 31 suffering from depression. It was just four days after he had been treated at the hospital for an abnormal heart rhythm.

On June 2 he walked out of the unit and was never seen again by his wife or two sons.

Monica Madrzyk, 51, his wife of 24 years, made an emotional plea for his return two weeks later. She said that her husband, affectionately known as Jurek, had been involved in a court wrangle in his native Poland over a candle design, which had affected his state of mind.

In last week's edition, she said: "The last week has been very, very hard. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat, it's really bad. I just dread the worst, that he is not alive."

Mr Madrzyk's partly decomposed body was found in undergrowth down a steep embankment by a man walking his dog.

A post-mortem held the following morning could not establish a cause of death. Police are not treating his death as suspicious. An inquest is due to be held in the coming weeks.

June 24, 2002 17:00