He made lunch then left to see a friend - now his parents are desperate

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When promising chef Joe Emanuel Cuaspa Vargas prepared lunch for his parents on June 2, before heading out to see a friend, they had no idea it could be the last loving act their boy would ever do for them.

He had worked early that morning with his dad Alexander, 46, and mum Jamileth, 43, cleaning pubs, before offering to go and prepare their meal. At around 12pm, the parents arrived home in Tottenham, north London, to enjoy the ribs, salad and rice that their 21-year-old had thoughtfully crafted.

They ate their lunch and talked about their day. But around seven hours later they would receive a phone call, from Joe’s friend, that every parent dreads.

Joe had fallen into the River Thames, and had not re-emerged. They joined the search effort near Battersea park, where Joe had been seen, alongside the Metropolitan Police, its Marine Policing Unit and the fire brigade.

The search continued the day after, and the day after, until, on June 6, a body was pulled from the water. Alexander says the chain of events that followed have left the family feeling like their son was not ‘worth’ enough, with accusations of incompetency levelled at the Metropolitan Police.

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In the early hours of June 7, police knocked at the door to tell Joe’s parents they believed the body found in the Thames was their son’s, and asked them if they would identify it the next day. That day, while digesting the gut-wrenching news that their youngest child could be dead, they say they awaited a call from police to instruct them to carry out what would have been the hardest task of their lives - to confirm the corpse was his.

No phone call arrived, they said, and so they chased up the Met where, they say, they were told that they could, in fact, not view the body and that it had been an error for the officer to ask them to do so.

“They said it was a mistake, that we shouldn’t have been told that, and then things were just left like that,” Alexander told the Mirror.

They then received a call from the coroner, who asked them about Joe - what were his hobbies, and what did he like to do. “It was all very relaxed and then suddenly we were told: ‘Ok, we’re going to proceed with the autopsy to see what was the cause of his death,’" said Alexander.

Despite this, they say the coroner said they could not confirm it was their son. In the meantime, Alexander says police told them blood tests would be carried out to retrieve DNA. Eight days later, they say police then told them an autopsy was to be taken and that the body’s organs would be removed and blood would be taken to compare the analysis.

“This is eight days after we were told by the coroner an autopsy would be carried out,” Alexander said. The whole process was all over the place. It was all so contradictory and seemed crazy and totally incompetent.”

Again, they say no phone call arrived regarding the autopsy until the Missing People charity called the Met to try and get an answer. The family were then told the post mortem could not glean an identification. Meanwhile, the liaison officer put in charge of their case went for holiday, the family say, and he was not replaced.

“I have no problem with somebody going on holiday they are owed, of course,” said Alexander. “But surely somebody should be put in place in the interim period?” The family, originally Colombian, say they have felt left out in the cold by police, who, they say, have made promises they have not kept.

Seven weeks on, the DNA results have still not come back which, police say, is within the normal timeframe. For the family, their agony continues while there has been no positive identification of the body, in a case that lays bare the brutal reality families endure when a loved one disappears.

Throughout, Alexander and Jamileth have continued working, every day, knowing they are coming home each afternoon to face the agony of their son’s absence, and likely an absence of information from the authorities. They have a semblance of hope that their youngest child is still alive, because nothing has been confirmed to the contrary.

“We still have some hope that he is alive,” Alexander told the Mirror. "Because they say that they don’t know for a fact it is our son who they found in the water.”

The parents asked if they could view photos, at least of clothing, to help identify their son. They were not allowed, and have still not been allowed to, while the coroner’s investigation continues.

Belen Pavani-Sattin, a family support supervisor from the Missing People charity, said of the case: “It’s not just the distress a family is already facing - it’s the trauma of ambiguous loss, having already endured four agonising days without knowing where their loved one was. When the police called to say a body had been recovered, the family clung to the hope that they might finally get answers - that there might be an end to the uncertainty and pain.

“But to then be told they couldn’t identify the body - that DNA testing was now required before any confirmation could be made - was unbearable. This, despite the body being found not long after the person went missing. To make matters worse, no contact details were provided for the coroner. It left the family confused, helpless, and feeling completely abandoned at an already devastating time.”

Alexander said police initially told them Joe had jumped from a bridge into the Thames, but that an eye witness account, given to the family during the search, said he had been seen falling backwards into the water from a wall. The family does not believe he would have risked jumping in.

Alexander said: “Every day we are waiting, we are not living, because we don’t know what’s to come, we have so many questions, without solutions, without answers. Sometimes we’re saying to each other, ‘why did we come here (to London), maybe we should have stayed there (Spain)’.”

They lived for 17 years in Madrid, Spain, and moved to the UK in 2018 because their eldest son Joseph, now 25, wanted to study in London. They came here with a lot of happiness, he said, excited for the change and the opportunity.

“It was really good, to be honest,” Alexander says. “They were studying, they were doing the things they liked to do. Everything was really beautiful, things were turning out to be really nice in this country.”

He describes Joe as an independent, fun, young man, with a warm heart and with a passion for cooking. Joe studied in London to become a chef and was juggling evening work in the kitchen with grafting alongside his parents in the mornings.

“Joe was always in his kitchen since he was very young, he loved cooking,” he said. "Since he was just three years old, he prepared his own breakfast. We didn’t need to tell him what to eat, whenever he woke up, he would go to the kitchen, stand on a stool to reach the fridge, where he would get his bread, his butter, cheese, jamon, and he would make his sandwich.

“And his Colacao (Spanish chocolate drink), he couldn’t be without that. He was very independent since he was very small. He is a normal kid. He has dreams, he has his life in front of him. We still have hopes that he’s alive. So, we keep going, we keep going with this fight and we trust in God.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson: “We have been liaising with Westminster Coroner’s court following the disappearance of Joe Vargas, who was reported missing on Monday, June 2. Following the discovery of a body on June 6, officers carried out multiple identification enquiries and DNA was submitted to a forensic lab for analysis as soon as it was obtained.

“Throughout the investigation, officers have remained in contact with Joe’s family. Regrettably, the family were misinformed about the identification process and for that we unreservedly apologise. We immediately sought to rectify this error but understand the distress it will have caused.”

"A postmortem was held on Wednesday, June 18. We await DNA confirmation and until then cannot formally identify the body. Our thoughts remain with Joe’s family at this difficult time."

The Westminster Coroner did not comment.

The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed - a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.