How do I find out if someone has died?

[MissingThemDearly]

I know this isn’t the right section, I’m posting for traffic. PLEASE don’t move it, I am so desperate for help.

Realistically, how would I find out if someone is dead? I have a gut feeling they are. But I don’t know any information apart from their first name (which is common) and the city they live in (which is large). They were last seen on WhatsApp last month, which rules out that I’ve been blocked as it wouldn’t show that info if I had been, and their phone just goes straight to voicemail when trying to call. This is literally the only information that I have. I know it’s a big conclusion to jump to death but I have a gut feeling, and this is somebody that I was in contact with every four or five days without fail and now nothing for ages. I know the company they work for, but it’s a large supermarket chain and I don’t know which one or where it’s located.

This person is also Muslim. I add this because I don’t think funeral announcements are made locally and available, like other religions are, just in case anyone suggests that.

Is this a lost cause? Any advice or help would be appreciated, thank you in advance.

you could try putting the person's first name plus 'obituary' with the name of their local area in Google and see what comes up.

Just read your update - glad he's alive after all.

Thank you for updating! I was wondering about this.

Just read your thread and pleases you got answers

@ChristmasPlanning

Just read your thread and pleases you got answers

Pleased

Am so pleased for you both. Merry Christmas.

That’s wonderful news, please let him know how much you care

I’m so glad to read your update! I hope both you and your friend are ok and happy and wish you a merry Christmas

Thank you for updating. I did read your thread at the time. You sounded so sad so I’m really glad you’ve found him.

So pleased you are back in touch. I remember your thread. Not knowing is horrible. Get more details off them right now !

So he was in hospital/prison after drink driving?
You sound like you really love him.
Please try and help him with his alcohol misuse.

I remember this thread. So glad that it resolved and thanks for updating us.

Glad to hear the situation is resolved. He's lucky to have such a loyal friend.

@MissingThemDearly that's a lovely update. I'm pleased he got back in touch with you and thank you for updating!

Just look after yourself. You sound like a lovely man. Please be careful. You deserve so much more. Have a good Christmas.

Lovely update! Happy Christmas OP x

Happy for you

That’s a positive update, he is very lucky to have such a caring person around as you.

Thank you for updating

Thanks guys for your nice recent messages, really appreciated.

@Linguini @Herecomesthesun70 He was in prison for yes, drink driving. I KNEW it was to do with that (though I thought he had died so my guy feeling wasn’t so accurate). But I KNEW he hadn’t just ghosted me or blocked me like others were saying. I went back through this thread just now and can’t believe the amount of spiteful, nasty and personal posts some people made on this thread tbh Fair enough I didn’t give out much info at the start and “drip fed” but I only “drip fed” because people were getting things so wrong and I felt I had to clarify things, it was certainly not my original intention to give out that much information but even after that some people continued to use that against me.

Anyway, thank you to those that were kind, I wish everyone a merry Christmas

I am glad that you know what happened to him. I had read your post previously but had no advice to offer.
People on here do seem to be quite nasty unnecessarily, you just need to think how sad their lives must be to spend their free time slagging off people in the internet!
Have a lovely Christmas

Do you know when (what year) or where (area) they were convicted for drunk driving? Can you do search for "first name" and "drunk driving" and "area" and "year" or "date"? These things may well be findable but may take a long time to google/duckduckgo/yahoo search.
Then you may have a surname to look for.
Have you searched the phone number/ email address online?
Can you remember anything else about their family? Any identifying area/name/professions that you could search for?
Obviously you've searched for "first name" and "obituary" (which I realise you are not expecting to find). Have you looked for "first name" and "city" and "accident" or "death" or "injury" and limited the search by date to the day of the last WhatsApp attendance to now?
Any particular places this person liked to shop? go in spare time?
The factory where this person worked for a few months- any chance of all of contacting someone there? Hanging around at beginnings/ends of shift times (if such a thing still exists)?

I'll try and have a think of other searchable ideas, feel free to DM me if you want.

Oops sorry just read latest post. Glad you found out what happened and that they were ok after all. It's natural to "think the worst" and at least now it's not as bad as that.