A FAMILY are still fighting for answers after a body of a man was pulled from the River Thames with dumbbells tied to his wrists.
Cops discovered Damien Lewis' body floating in the middle of the famous river next to Westminster Pier, London, in October last year.
At the time of his disappearance Damien was meant to living in supported accommodation because of his severe learning difficulties, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
But vulnerable Damien's final moments still remain a mystery after he was found with a two kg dumbbell on each wrist.
Cops who broke the news at the family’s home in Dagenham were limited in the information they supplied.
The Lewis’s were baffled by it all, the stretch of water he was found was around 13 miles from Damien's last known address in Ilford, which is also five miles from the river.
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His sister Paula Lewis told MyLondon: “A blow-up boat that was out on the river and spotted something in the water they said looked kind of suspicious.
“They went over to take a look and realised it was someone face down. As they were pulling them out the water they [saw] there was a rope tied around each wrist and a dumbbell attached to the rope weighing two kilogrammes each.”
This was strange to the Lewis’s as Damien never had an interest in exercise or been known to own dumbbells.
Instead, he was known to have enjoyed eating sweets and playing Pokemon.
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Paula adds that the amount of weight – 4 kilograms – was peculiar and was unlikely to hinder her brother's ability to swim.
She points out that her brother was around six feet tall, with a broad top-heavy build, and she believes the weights were certainly not enough to sink him.
His heartbroken sister added: “He didn't have shoes and socks or a jacket on.
"But he had a bunch of very thin hair tied on the top of his head, which he's never had in his life.
"Part of his autism and OCD was that he wouldn't let anyone see his head for maybe six years.
"He slept with a hood tied around his head and never moved it. He used to go in the bathroom and burn his hair with a lighter, that was his way of cutting it.”
Following his death, Damien’s family has attempted to piece things together using the few traces he left.
As he didn’t own a mobile phone, there is no way of knowing who he might have communicated with in his final days.
It took three weeks for cops to confirm that the body was Damien.
But this delay meant investigating officers were unable to gain CCTV or other evidence about where Damien went into the water.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said that the post-mortem examination confirmed he had died as a result of drowning and “found no evidence of any suspicious circumstances and officers concluded the death was unexpected, but not suspicious.”
Tragically for the Lewis family, Damien's father Gary died of a heart attack triggered by a blood clot in his leg two months after they got the awful news.
His daughter Paula says the family believes the stress of the death of her brother – nicknamed George of the jungle for his love of climbing and reclusiveness – caused her father’s heart attack.
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The coroner is yet to rule on Damien’s death but, with the police investigation closed, the family is desperate for an open verdict.
Paula and the family believe there are gaps around Damien’s disappearance which will provide the answers his father was never able to get.
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