By NOEL MURPHY
MYSTERY man Howard Jones, who went missing last year after living in a Herne Hill bus shelter, has been found and reunited with his family in the UK.
Police tracked Mr Jones down to a retirement home on the Bellarine Peninsula after his brother in Pembrokeshire, Wales, launched a desperate year-long search to find his twin.
A close friend of Picton Jones, who has been searching leads on behalf of the 70-year-old, told the Independent police had located Howard.
“His twin brother, Picton, phoned and spoke to him. He was a bit confused but seemed okay,” Teresa Tannahill said.
The family was reluctant to release details regarding Mr Jones’ specific whereabouts.
He disappeared 12 months ago after living in the bus shelter, on Minerva Rd for a month. He left behind a blue Geelong Football club bag with a doona and other personal effects.
Mr Jones’ affable, polite nature had endeared him to nearby shopkeepers and his sudden disappearance left them, and his family in Wales, who had lost contact with him in 2010, anxious.
Police took Mr Jones to a welfare agency but his whereabouts afterwards was impossible for family to determine until this week.
They believed he left his rented home after a number of unspecified violent incidents.