Body Is Found in Search for Missing British Poet

The household of a British poet who disappeared final weekend from a music competition in England was in mourning after a physique was discovered following a virtually weeklong search that drew nationwide headlines and intense curiosity on social media.

The poet, Gboyega Odubanjo, 27, was final seen on the Shambala music competition in Kelmarsh, England, about 85 miles north of London, round 4 a.m. on Saturday. Mr. Odubanjo had been scheduled to carry out on the competition on Sunday.

The search ended on Thursday morning, when the Northamptonshire Police mentioned that they had discovered a person’s physique, which they didn’t publicly determine.

The police mentioned that the person’s household had been knowledgeable and that there didn’t look like suspicious circumstances surrounding the dying.

In a press release shared with The New York Times by an in depth buddy of Mr. Odubanjo’s, Tice Cin, his household remembered him warmly and mentioned his disappearance had been “entirely out of character.”

“He is a warm and infectious personality, a contagious smile, and a heart full of kindness,” the household’s assertion mentioned. “When his sister’s twins were born, he took it upon himself to move in and support his sister and husband with their young family.”

Echoing criticism on social media of the seek for Mr. Odubanjo, the household’s assertion additionally mentioned, “We believe that if he had received adequate care, he would still be alive.”

In a press release, the Northamptonshire Police mentioned that “Searching open terrain and water requires specialist skills to locate a missing person and to secure and preserve evidence. Unofficial searches carry a risk to both those searching, and to the investigation.”

The disappearance and dying stay an lively investigation, the police mentioned. The organizers of the Shambala Festival, which describes itself as “anti-corporate, independent and environmentally pioneering,” mentioned they had been “devastated by this situation” however in any other case declined to remark whereas awaiting the coroner’s report on the reason for dying.

Mr. Odubanjo, who was born and raised in London, was thought-about a rising star within the metropolis’s poetry scene. He was the creator of “While I Yet Live” and the prizewinning assortment “Aunty Uncle Poems,” and served because the editor of bathtub magg, a web-based poetry journal. He labored as an editor at Bad Betty Press and was finding out for a Ph.D. in artistic writing on the University of Hertfordshire.

His disappearance prompted an outpouring of help from Britain’s poetry neighborhood.

“Our light switch in a dark room,” Kareem Parkins-Brown, a London-based poet, mentioned of Mr. Odubanjo. “He was the voice for the joys of London life. Our city’s Frank O’Hara.”

“In the literary world I have often felt misunderstood and eager to explain myself, but I always felt you got me,” the poet Raymond Antrobus mentioned in a message. “So many of us who knew your brilliance and were waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.”

“He just had this air of wisdom about him,” Ms. Cin, Mr. Odubanjo’s buddy, mentioned. “He could go anywhere in the world and people would look to him for advice.”

Mr. Odubanjo had been scheduled to look on the Barbican Centre in London this month as a part of 05fest, a competition placed on by the poet Inua Ellams.

But Mr. Odubanjo had massive ambitions exterior of his native Britain. “He wanted to tell stories across the whole world,” Ms. Cin mentioned, however he at all times felt a robust connection together with his house metropolis.

As Mr. Odubanjo mentioned in one in every of his poems: “london is a bit of me / london is the place for me.”