In 1994, Manic Street Preachers’ guitarist Richey Edwards was quoted as saying: “In terms of the ‘S’ word, that does not enter my mind.”

The ‘S’ word’ in this case is ‘suicide’, which is allegedly how the rock star died – jumping off the Severn Bridge in Bristol in February 1995 at the age of 27.

His car was found near the bridge, two weeks later.

Since then, there have been a number of reported ‘sightings’ of Edwards. A college professor claimed to have seen him in India in 1996, and fans claimed to have seen him in a bar on the Canary Islands in 1998.

When they confronted the Edwards Look-alike, he ran from the bar.

Now, co-authors Sara Hawys Roberts and Leon Noakes are claiming to have evidence drawn from interviews with friends and family, along with Edwards’ old schoolbooks and diaries, that he faked his own death, which they outline in their new book, Withdrawn Traces.

Here’s The Daily Mail:

Friends revealed his favourite film was Eddie And The Cruisers, a 1983 release starring Tom Berenger and Michael Paré about claims that a rock band’s long-lost leader could still be alive.

Edwards is also said to have enjoyed The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, the 1970s BBC TV sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter as Reggie, who faked his own death.

Ms Roberts told The Sun : ‘Knowing how intelligent he was, if anybody was going to stage a disappearance he would certainly be the person who would have been more than capable.

The band claimed that Edwards was very good at “dramatic symbolism”.

With all the books and all the different things he’d left and all the things he had spoken about before going missing, there were symbolic things in there that would lead you to think, ‘Oh, yeah, he did plan his disappearance’.’

Edwards wasn’t declared dead until 2008, when his now late parents were granted a court order that would allow them to inherit his fortune.

Edwards spent much of his adult life suffering from depression, anorexia and bouts of self-mutilation. In 1991, he used a razor to carve ‘4Real’ on to his arm in front of a journalist – an attempt to prove his artistic convictions.

When you take all of that into account, the dramatic act of faking one’s own death doesn’t seem that implausible.

[source:dailymail]