Found Deceased Sarah Cunningham, 31 - last seen in Camden, London at around 3am, Saturday 2 Nov 2024

[bringmeacupoft]

So very sad, RIP Sarah.

 

[ginnyw]

What a very sad ending and a perplexing one. I know that we never know what was going on in somebody else's life, but it did look as if this young lady was riding high as an artist and going from strength to strength professionally, having just returned from a successful trip.

 

[Inverloch]

She was an incredible talent and her paintings are beautiful - no doubt they will become extremely collectible now. So sad, such a loss.

 

[Smccat]

Beautiful and talented lady. RIP Sarah. So sad.

 

[sriraaacha]

This is so sad. RIP Sarah.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

This is a terribly distressing case.

Has it been established what happened to SC in between the times she left the apartment and was found at the station? I'm confused as to how she was in such a busy highly populated area and didn't come to anyone's attention for help or wasn't spotted by any of the people searching for her. Or alternately, was she always down on the track but how did nobody notice?

 

[Cherwell]

Someone must know where she was, but I don't think we will be told any more.

 

[Pisces42]

Someone must know where she was, but I don't think we will be told any more.

This latest report in Camden New Journal just doesn't add up, and contradicts other media reports. It states that Sarah was seen walking the tracks on CCTV before being struck by a train, and that she was likely walking the tracks after missing the last train home on the Friday night. But other media reports state that Sarah was hit by a train at 1am on the Monday, nearly two days after she went missing.

Tributes to artist Sarah Cunningham after tragic end to search

Investigation will look at whether she was able to walk into underground train tunnel

www.camdennewjournal.co.uk

The article also states that it's believed that Sarah got disoriented as she walked in the tracks and sadly passed out before being struck shortly afterwards.

As well as contradictory timelines, I find it hard to fathom that a savvy young woman would jump on some train tracks and start walking down a pitch black tunnel in a bid to get home. Even if she was very inebriated, that's just not something most people would do when drunk. We'll probably never know the real reason why what happened happened but all the actions involved would suggest Sarah may not have been in a great headspace. I don't know, it just feels odd to me that a different picture is being painted by the Camden Journal but none of it makes any sense, factually speaking.

 

[Lucy6226]

This latest report in Camden New Journal just doesn't add up, and contradicts other media reports. It states that Sarah was seen walking the tracks on CCTV before being struck by a train, and that she was likely walking the tracks after missing the last train home on the Friday night. But other media reports state that Sarah was hit by a train at 1am on the Monday, nearly two days after she went missing.

Tributes to artist Sarah Cunningham after tragic end to search

Investigation will look at whether she was able to walk into underground train tunnel

www.camdennewjournal.co.uk

The article also states that it's believed that Sarah got disoriented as she walked in the tracks and sadly passed out before being struck shortly afterwards.

As well as contradictory timelines, I find it hard to fathom that a savvy young woman would jump on some train tracks and start walking down a pitch black tunnel in a bid to get home. Even if she was very inebriated, that's just not something most people would do when drunk. We'll probably never know the real reason why what happened happened but all the actions involved would suggest Sarah may not have been in a great headspace. I don't know, it just feels odd to me that a different picture is being painted by the Camden Journal but none of it makes any sense, factually speaking.

I could understand a teenager not knowing the way home but thinking they could follow the tracks home.

Maybe she thought it was safer than walking the streets alone...no men on the train tracks I guess?

It is a very strange set of circumstances and like you say, we'll probably never know

 

[ginnyw]

I expect the inquest will reveal more but I am glad that the above posters have pretty much said what I've been thinking - it is a strange set of events with a big piece of missing time in the middle and it does seem that SC was riding high career-wise and had done some successful trips only a few days before this happened. I hope that somehow the police can get to the bottom of it and answer any questions that her family might have.

 

[starlightstarbright]

I wonder if she was actually in Chalk Farm Underground station (would it be open at 3am?) or if she was on the above ground train lines that run next to it?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

I wonder if she was actually in Chalk Farm Underground station (would it be open at 3am?) or if she was on the above ground train lines that run next to it?

On a Friday and Saturday night, the Northern Line is often open overnight 'the night tube'.

It's possible that if the station is short staffed, the barriers are left held open and there's not many people there.

ETA: Says in the CNJ article that she may have been seen going into the tube tunnel on the tracks after missing the train. If she did that and then stumbled on or near the track, she could have been electrocuted or hit by a train but *not* in a way that the driver noticed. Maybe then lain undiscovered for two days, especially if wearing black clothing and at the side of the track, may have been mistaken for something else. She could have also passed for other reasons. JMO MOO

 

[Twittens]

In order to remain productive, she would sometimes force herself to work without sleep for 40 hours straight

In an interview with the American magazine Cultured, she recalled the demands of working as an art student without being able to rely on family means “During the day, I would drive a van carrying smoothie-making bikes all over the UK, a new city every day, to and from Nottingham,” she said.

“I was on the road all the time, often sleeping in service station car parks on the side of the motorway. But all I could think about was painting.”

The demands of manual labour meant she had to paint at night. After a long shift on the road, and when many of her contemporaries were heading to bed or hitting Nottingham’s drinking holes, she would retreat to her makeshift studio and paint with a ferocious drive.

In order to remain productive, she would sometimes force herself to work without sleep for 40 hours straight.

Sarah Cunningham: the art world grieves a bold and exciting painter

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

In order to remain productive, she would sometimes force herself to work without sleep for 40 hours straight

In an interview with the American magazine Cultured, she recalled the demands of working as an art student without being able to rely on family means “During the day, I would drive a van carrying smoothie-making bikes all over the UK, a new city every day, to and from Nottingham,” she said.

“I was on the road all the time, often sleeping in service station car parks on the side of the motorway. But all I could think about was painting.”

The demands of manual labour meant she had to paint at night. After a long shift on the road, and when many of her contemporaries were heading to bed or hitting Nottingham’s drinking holes, she would retreat to her makeshift studio and paint with a ferocious drive.

In order to remain productive, she would sometimes force herself to work without sleep for 40 hours straight.

Sarah Cunningham: the art world grieves a bold and exciting painter

With no disrespect to @Twittens intended whatsoever, this article has really got under my skin.

The tormented suffering artist = an offensive and tired old trope that is harmful to creative people in all genres. Promotors and agents push the notion for investors to believe that their chosen ones must be starvingly poor, tormented, tortured, mentally ill, wired on drugs, suicidal, destructive, unreasonable, or somehow severely suffering in order to be 'true artists'. It's a notion that feeds into itself and causes harm to creatives in all walks of life IMO. JMO.

 

[Twittens]

With no disrespect to @Twittens intended whatsoever, this article has really got under my skin.

The tormented suffering artist = an offensive and tired old trope that is harmful to creative people in all genres. Promotors and agents push the notion for investors to believe that their chosen ones must be starvingly poor, tormented, tortured, mentally ill, wired on drugs, suicidal, destructive, unreasonable, or somehow severely suffering in order to be 'true artists'. It's a notion that feeds into itself and causes harm to creatives in all walks of life IMO. JMO.

I don't disagree with that at all.

That said, the impression I mainly take from the article is that artists (visual and otherwise) are incredibly poorly supported financially, with only the very lucky few getting any kind of funding or support, and anyone who wants to be creative basically needing to commit to a 15-year unpaid internship before they can even think about getting anywhere, which disproportionally affects people from a less than privileged background and leaves us all culturally poorer. In an era of reduced government support and spiralling tuition fees, the more people who read and realise this for the first time the better imo.

It's unhelpful in a way that Sarah Cunningham seems to have individually bucked that trend by means of a tireless commitment to her art, because as long as there are superstars who defeat the odds, there can also be a parallel narrative that there's no need to support the arts because the cream will always rise to the top, etc. But it's also a valuable cautionary tale, because being in the habit of staying up for 40 hours at a time clearly didn't work out very well for her, whether her death was accidental or otherwise.

No wonder her mum was worried about her career choice. I hope the chorus of voices who have only good things to say about her will be of comfort. And I hope she rests in peace. She sounds like a fabulous young woman.

jmo

 

[CandyCaneLane]

Artist Sarah Cunningham's Tube Death was accidental, inquest finds

Sarah Cunningham was hit by a Northern line train after stepping on to the track at Chalk Farm.

www.bbc.co.uk