Latest: Louth student gets memories of late boyfriend returned as lost phone returned
A heartbroken Louth student who appealed for help in finding her lost phone has been reunited with many of her precious memories of her boyfriend who died suddenly a few weeks ago.
Clare Fagan, 23, from Drogheda, made a heart-rendering plea with whoever had her Samsung Galaxy A5 phone, just to back-up the irreplaceable pictures, texts and recordings that were stored on the device.
Most of the memories lost were of her and her late partner Philip Dowling, 30, from Monasterboice, who died suddenly in America last month.
Philip had been visiting Clare, who was on an internship at the University of Purdue in Indiana as part of final year environmental health degree at when the tragedy occurred.
She claims her phone went missing from her handbag at the Fusion disco in the town last Sunday evening.
However, the phone was handed into Navan gardai on Friday and although the phone had been wiped, experts were able to recover a lot of her last pictures taken with Phil.
She said last night: "My phone would never have been found if it wasn't for all of my friends and family, local businesses, LMFM Radio, Fusion Venue in Drogheda, gardaí and everyone on social media who helped get the word out.
"Although the SIM card was stolen and someone did their best to wipe the phone to sell it on, I have been able to get back some of my beautiful memories.
"When I turned the phone on, it was all gobbledygook and I was so distraught that phone experts said to go away and get a cup of tea and they'd do their best to get back some pictures. They were brilliant.
Although I lost a lot of footage, I got back the last photographs of us taken in America, along with recordings of us singing together
"I'd like to say to anyone thinking of wiping a phone they found or took, to think about what you could be doing to somebody's memories and possessions before doing something horrible like this.
"To whoever handed the phone in, I'm eternally grateful. You most definitely did the right thing."
Earlier: Heartbroken Louth student pleads for last memories of dead boyfriend from her lost phone
A Co. Louth student is appealing for help to find her lost phone, containing precious memories of her boyfriend who died suddenly last month.
23-year-old Clare Fagan from Drogheda has made a heartrending plea with whoever may have her phone, just to back up the irreplaceable pictures, texts and recordings that were stored on the device.
Most of the memories lost were of her and her late partner Philip Dowling (aged 30) from Monasterboice, who died suddenly in America last month.
Philip had been visiting Clare, who was on an internship at the University of Purdue in Indiana as part of her final-year environmental health degree, when the tragedy occurred.
She claims her phone went missing from her handbag at a disco in the town last Sunday evening.
The distraught young woman said: "To whoever has my phone, I cannot explain how many personal and irreplaceable memories are on that phone.
"It is a Samsung Galaxy gold A5 with a clear cover and there is a picture of myself and Phil on the lock screen and an ID card with my picture and name attached to the back.
I don't care about the phone, I don't even want the SIM card back. All I'm asking is that whoever has the phone would just back up the pics for me so that they will automatically go to my own database.
"I just want all the pics, texts, videos and recordings of me and Phil singing - I just want them back to remember him. They're the most recent ones I had of him and the last memories of us together," she said.
