Found Deceased Australia - Bernard Gore, 71, Woollahra, NSW, 5 Jan 2017

[Morrisa]

My goodness. Surely he wasn't there this whole time???
RIP!!

 

[Eloise]

Terrible news and an awful fate. I feel so sad for him and his family.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Madge_Ick_Dike]

Sad to hear this his family must be devastated.

 

[Bohemian]

Man’s body found in Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction
Kate Bastians and Danielle Gusmaroli
Wentworth Courier
44 minutes ago (as at 13:50 27 January 2017)

'THE body of the man found at Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction has been confirmed as Bernard Gore.

The 71-year-old’s son Mark Gore said: “Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted”.

“It’s just a hard time for us,” he said.

“We appreciate everyone’s efforts.”

Police are not treating the death as suspicious.'

'Shopkeepers at the sprawling Westfield shopping centre alerted security after seeing a “disorientated” and “confused” pensioner the day Mr Gore went missing exactly three weeks ago.

As police and security organised the removal of the body found slumped in a stairwell, staff at the Chanel store beside the tiny doorway say a silver-haired man had asked them for help that day.

A member of staff at the parfumerie beside the stairwell told the Daily Telegraph: “A frail old man who looked confused and disoriented kept pacing up and down outside the store.

“He said he couldn’t find his car or people he was supposed to be meeting.

“I asked him if he needed help and he shook his head, he was a little dazed, and walked off.

“We were worried about him so my colleague called security and one of the guards told us they could check CCTV footage to locate him.

“I don’t know if it was him but he could be anyone’s dad or granddad.

“The thought that he might be the man in the stairwell and has been there ever since makes me feel so sad.

“Why has it taken so long to find the body?”'

'Today suited Westfield security staff clutching clipboards manned the tiny door to the stairwell sealed off to the public with blue and white tape.

CCTV cameras are trained on entrances to shops on the forth floor where the perfumerie and stores including Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton and David Jones are located.

Emporio Armani employee Victoria Craig said she was saddened to hear of the grim discovery in the stairwell.

“Oh my god, that’s really sad. Poor thing. Bless him,” she said.

“When I came into work I saw lots of police everywhere.”

Police tape had been placed over the door but the area was not cordoned off​.

A staff member from Chanel, next door to where the body was found, said she was shocked at the discovery inside a busy shopping mall.

“It’s just awful, it makes me sick to the stomach,” she said.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of the day.”

Police and security staff seem to be grappling with how to get the body out of the busy mall in the middle of the day.'

'More to come.'

 

[bessie]

Very sad. Rest in Peace, Mr. Gore.

 

[they'll get you]

Feeling such sadness.
Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of my darling dads death. He died on Australia Day and he was an Aussie through and through.

A few times my dad would panic and get disoriented and shopkeepers would ring me because dad would give them my number I made him keep in his wallet.
You don't need to have dementia to get lost in THAT concrete mountain in Bondi Junction.

(Mr Gore should never have been left to his devices...with dementia.... in a HUGE place like that) IMO.

 

[Bohemian]

Feeling such sadness.
Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of my darling dads death. He died on Australia Day and he was an Aussie through and through.

A few times my dad would panic and get disoriented and shopkeepers would ring me because dad would give them my number I made him keep in his wallet.
You don't need to have dementia to get lost in THAT concrete mountain in Bondi Junction.

(Mr Gore should never have been left to his devices...with dementia.... in a HUGE place like that) IMO.

I'm sorry that this sad news has come just as you are again grieving over your Dad, tgy.

I agree with you. Dear Mr Gore should never have been left alone. Also, emergency services should have been informed of a disoriented and distressed elderly gentleman by Westfield security as soon as possible. Serious questions need to be asked about why this didn't occur and how Mr Gore's death went unnoticed.

 

[they'll get you]

I just don't understand why he was allowed to walk from Woollarah to Bondi Junction ALONE!
Tassie is a hellovalot different than Bondi Junction shopping centre. It's bloody massive!

I'll shut up for a while. I'll start pointing fingers.
Zip it TGY & count to three.

 

[Bohemian]

I just don't understand why he was allowed to walk from Woollarah to Bondi Junction ALONE!
Tassie is a hellovalot different than Bondi Junction shopping centre. It's bloody massive!

I'll shut up for a while. I'll start pointing fingers.
Zip it TGY & count to three.

I was a Fox Studios' Growers Markets waiting on my daughter to do her rounds of the stalls one Saturday morning. A woman sat her husband down very near me and told him to wait. Somehow I found out from her that he had dementia so I decided I would wait with him until she returned. Needless to say, that was an hour later but, even though my daughter was less than pleased, I could no more have left him sitting alone than I could a child. I've often wondered over the past few weeks if the man I met was Mr Gore. So, you see tgy, IKWYM *zips lip*

 

[they'll get you]

I was a Fox Studios' Growers Markets waiting on my daughter to do her rounds of the stalls one Saturday morning. A woman sat her husband down very near me and told him to wait. Somehow I found out from her that he had dementia so I decided I would wait with him until she returned. Needless to say, that was an hour later but, even though my daughter was less than pleased, I could no more have left him sitting alone than I could a child. I've often wondered over the past few weeks if the man I met was Mr Gore. So, you see tgy, IKWYM *zips lip*

RBBM

Older people with dementia are just as volnerable as children.

Such a caring thing you did Bo.
(An hour....aghaaa)

 

[they'll get you]

One worker told AAP he thought the centre’s security was meant to check the stairwell regularly.

He said his parents had been staying with his sister and her family in Woollahra since December 15 and that Mr Gore had made the journey between their home and the shopping centre several times without a problem.
“My father would not want to be a bother to anyone if he was lost, and I think it’s unlikely he’d approach a stranger for help.” Mark Gore said on January 10.

http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw...l/news-story/c69b5ae96cea6c127726d0595debfbda

 

[Bohemian]

$&@/* self-locking fire escape doors:

Nightmare in Westfield: How Bernard Gore died after being trapped in Westfield shopping centre stairwell
JANUARY 29, 2017 6:09PM
Candace Sutton news.com.au

'FOR Bernard Gore, becoming lost and trapped in the stairwell of a Westfield shopping centre proved fatal and his body lay undiscovered for three weeks.

But the nightmare of being lost in a labyrinth of self locking doors and confusing exits at Westfield centres can happen to anyone, the http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...e/news-story/33ba9b72040a93ac1d0997ccdea9bd31Sunday Telegraph reports, and management of the billion dollar retail chain has declined to comment.'

'It has now has been revealed that at one point Mr Gore was trapped inside the Westfield stairwell just metres from his wife, who was waiting on the other side of the door outside Woolworths on level three.

But the retired barber didn’t have the strength or the capacity to find his way free from the internal maze of stairs and doors.'

'Mr Gore was unable to secure his escape, and Westfield declined to respond to the Sunday Telegraph’s questions about whether management conducted sweeps of the stairwells or whether a door locked behind Mr Gore trapping him.

However, when 20-year-old Sunday Telegraph reporter Sarah Keoghan conducted a test of the enormous Bondi Junction shopping mall’s fire exits, she found it confusing and exhausting.

Ms Keoghan found there were only two points of escape — the roof carpark or the basement six flights down — and no levels had phones or help points.'

'Westfield told the Sunday Telegraph it was conducting its own investigation of Mr Gore’s disappearance and death at the shopping centre.'​

 

[they'll get you]

OMG NOOOOO !!!!
I experienced these doors once!
It was in a hotel stairwell and the door handles just swivelled without opening.
I had to climb down to ground level to escape.

I was told because it was a fire escape!!

THIS IS THE SADDEST THING!!
I need to swear!

 

[they'll get you]

IT WAS AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN

A woman who claims to have been trapped in a Westfield stairwell on Boxing Day last year says last week’s death in Bondi was an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
Loretta Fenney, from Wahroonga, says she and her mother Anne Galvin found themselves trapped in the external car park staircase on one of the busiest retails days of the year because there was no adequate signage warning them that the exits locked from the inside.
Mrs Fenney says that despite huge crowds at the complex, she and her mother frantically banged on the doors for ‘a good twenty or thirty minutes’ to no avail

“I had a small amount of phone signal and managed to Google the number for centre management where I was able to get on to a security guard,” she said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...e/news-story/33ba9b72040a93ac1d0997ccdea9bd31

 

[they'll get you]

THE ONLY ESCAPE IS A BIG CLIMB - UP OR DOWN

JUST walking Bondi Junction’s enormous mall is exhausting, even for a 20-year-old like me.
But as soon as I get inside one of the centre’s many fire exits, I begin to see why an elderly person — especially one with dementia, like Bernard Gore — might have got into trouble.
I’m here to see if the fire exits are easy to get out of, but it doesn’t take long for me to discover you need to be fit and alert to even work out whether to go up or down.
I enter the first set of fire stairs from the ground floor and immediately attempt to open it from the other side. My hand slips, and I realise that there is, in fact, no handle at all.

That means there's no way out at ground floor: in these stairs, you have to go up to escape.
After three steep flights up following the ‘EXIT’ arrows, I finally find a way out: onto a roof carpark.
I set off to test another set of fire stairs on the opposite end of Bondi Junction, this time on the very top level.
I walk in, and this time there is a handle on the other side, but it is locked, which means I can’t get back into the shopping levels.
I have to walk down six flights to reach the exit, a double door that leads to street level.
None of the stairs I inspect contain emergency phones or help points.
— Sarah Keoghan

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...e/news-story/33ba9b72040a93ac1d0997ccdea9bd31

 

[they'll get you]

I posted my post above to the Westfield Facebook page....it will be reviewed....I guarantee it won't be printed as there is NOTHING about Bernard Gore.

I'll be hounding them by phone & email tomorrow!

Email:
cbondijunction@scentregroup.com.

Phone centre management:
02 9987 4000


I hope the Gore family sue their arses!

 

[Bohemian]

OMG NOOOOO !!!!
I experienced these doors once!
It was in a hotel stairwell and the door handles just swivelled without opening.
I had to climb down to ground level to escape.

I was told because it was a fire escape!!

THIS IS THE SADDEST THING!!
I need to swear!

It really is sad, tgy. To think Mr Gore was trapped, confused and desperately trying to get someone's attention without success. Without water on such hot days and without food for so long, he had no means of survival.

it breaks my heart. I see so many frail elders at Bondi Junction. Today, I helped a man cross the lights at Hollywood Avenue. He was so slow and wanted to stop in the middle of the road to let cars turn left. I told him, 'They can wait for you.' and walked him across. Everyone else just walked on by. Heartless.

 

[Bohemian]

I posted my post above to the Westfield Facebook page....it will be reviewed....I guarantee it won't be printed as there is NOTHING about Bernard Gore.

I'll be hounding them by phone & email tomorrow!


I hope the Gore family sue their arses!

I think there will be a lawsuit, tgy. As soon as the Coroner hands down his findings into Mr Gore's death.

 

[they'll get you]

I think there will be a lawsuit, tgy. As soon as the Coroner hands down his findings into Mr Gore's death.

I've sent an email to centre management venting my disgust. We'll see if I get an answer.

It's obvious it's a known problem!!!

I wonder how many others have been trapped or died and we haven't heard about it!

Arrgh this is horrific!! This is the worst!

 

[they'll get you]

I think there will be a lawsuit, tgy. As soon as the Coroner hands down his findings into Mr Gore's death.

There MUST be a recall on those frickin' doors!
Surely there is another solution, it's 2017 for crying out loud! C'mon!

They should LOCK IF THERE IS A FIRE and remain UNLOCKED otherwise.

OK I'll count to three....again.