Missing Manic Street Preacher declared dead
Posted: 25 November 2008 1141 hrs

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LONDON : While the Manic Street Preachers were performing in Singapore on Monday, the band's former guitarist and songwriter Richey Edwards who has been missing for 13 years, was declared as "presumed dead".

"There has been a change in his legal status," said the spokesman for the Welsh rock band, adding that his parents had been granted a court order to that effect.

Edwards' car was found abandoned in February 1995, near the Severn Bridge linking England and Wales, a popular suicide spot. The 27-year-old musician who had suffered severe bouts depression throughout his life, was believed to have taken his own life by jumping off the bridge.

A missing person can be declared legally dead after seven years but his parents have taken nearly twice that length of time to do so.

Welsh news web site www.walesonline.co.uk quoted David Ellis, the Edwards family lawyer, as saying they had had a change of heart that reflected "an acceptance that his affairs have got to be sorted".

"That's not the same as an acceptance that he is dead," he added.

Earlier this month the remaining members of the band - Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore - announced that they will make a new record featuring lyrics left behind by Edwards.

"It's a record that celebrates the genius of his words, full of love, anger, intelligence and respect. We have to make this great," they said on their website. The band hope to release the album in April.

- CNA/il