Who is Robert N? Fresh details on Newtown man whose body remained unfound in DFFH unit

Fresh details have emerged about a Geelong man whose body remained unfound in a public housing unit for possibly five years.

His name was Robert N.

Very little else is known about him.

An elderly Geelong man seemingly forgotten by the system and left to die an undignified death among piles of rubbish in a commission flat. A place his body would remain undiscovered for years.

If it wasn’t for whistleblowers and neighbours living in and around the Newtown street he called home, perhaps the wider community wouldn’t even know that much.

The man’s body was onl discovered on Russell St, in Newtown, in December 2022. Picture: Alan Barber

“He kept to himself,” one neighbour said.

“He would stand in the front yard in his Y-front underwear.

“I think he was mentally unwell.”

Another claimed he would sometimes see the thick-set man looking around cars on the street, but he otherwise went unnoticed.

“He seemed pretty harmless,” he said.

“I never saw him have any visitors at all.”

Revelations his corpse had been left to rot unnoticed for as long as possibly five years, as his sister lived alongside the remains in atrocious conditions, have sent shockwaves through Geelong and beyond.

The unit in Newtown remains empty. Picture: Alan Barber

Robert’s story shows how the most vulnerable members of our society can find themselves left behind – ignored and forgotten – even by the authorities tasked with keeping watch over them.

Next door neighbour, Nicole Stratton, said she only saw Robert “two or three times” before he just disappeared.

For years beforehand, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and other officials, had been warned about the terrible condition of the unit.

Several alarms were also raised about the bizarre behaviour of the woman sharing the home.

Robert’s skeletal remains were not pulled from behind the door of the small two-bedroom unit until December 29, 2022 – years after he was last seen.

Police arrive to remove the man’s body on December 29, 2022.

It should never have taken that long for authorities to discover what was unfolding behind the constantly closed, mould-covered blinds of the unit on Russell St.

Robert’s story deserves to be told.

He should not be forgotten in death as he was in life.

Did you know Robert N? Tell us – and the people of this city – about him.

If you know more email journalist Mark Murray at [e-mail] call the Geelong Advertiser on 5227 4340.

Originally published as Who is Robert N? Fresh details on Newtown man whose body remained unfound in DFFH unit