A GERMAN family have been reunited with their son following a nationwide publicity campaign targeted through the letters’ pages of more than 60 Irish newspapers.
Thomas Muffke, a 19-year-old fan of Celtic punk music, disappeared from his home close to the small town of Glashutte in September without the tablets he was taking to treat his depression.
Mr Muffke, who works at a chemical laboratory, attempted suicide a year ago, and his sudden and unexplained disappearance led his parents, Iris and Gunter Muffke, to fear the worst.
“He only brought two or three T-shirts and a small rucksack and nothing much else so we were naturally very worried,” says Ms Muffke , who contacted German police. Within a few days a policewoman informed the family that Mr Muffke had flown from Leipzig to Dublin on September 11th and withdrawn a large sum of money from his bank account. But the German authorities said they could do little else to track Mr Muffke as he was an adult and entitled to travel where he wants.
“The official response was ‘no news is good news’, which wasn’t helpful,” says Ms Muffke. The Muffke family enlisted the help of German lawyer Michael Viol, who began a letter-writing campaign to newspapers asking them to publish a description and photo of Mr Muffke. “The father came to me for help. I told him it was not my job but he was so sad and unhappy I decided to try and help,” says Mr Viol.
Within weeks the publicity campaign had worked when Julie Healy, owner of the Wood Quay Hostel in Galway, e-mailed Ms Muffke to let her know Thomas was well and watching TV in the hostel. She had seen his picture in the Galway Advertiser, says Ms Muffke.
“She is a lovely lady and with her help I got to talk to our son. I flew to Ireland and Thomas fetched me from Galway train station,” she says. “This was an unbelievable moment in my life. I had really feared for him. . . I got the impression Thomas was extremely exhausted. He put himself under too much pressure and was burnt out.”
Mr Muffke flew home on October 28th to be reunited with his family, who are all extremely grateful for the support they received here.
“When we started the publicity campaign we were overwhelmed by the support we received from people in Ireland contacting us with messages of support,” says Ms Muffke, who has written thank you letters to the newspapers.