John continued his visits and slowly built a relationship with the young girl that he thought akin to ‘father and daughter’ that only ceased with the mysterious disappearance of the family in July of 1991. As with both the Police and the press, John had no idea where the family had gone. The ongoing unexplained nature of the family’s vanishing pained John to the last of his days, openly visible in his deeply unsettled state upon relay of these details to me over a decade after the event.
Following the Jelish’s disappearance, John attempted to locate Naomi’s drawings. The drawings had neither been taken wherever she had gone nor had been left behind at home. Making no progress in situating the work, John left Gravesend and moved to London only returning several years later on hearing of the death of Naomi’s Grandmother – the woman John referred to as the artist’s ‘second confidante’. Though admitting his relationship with the artist’s Grandmother had soured since the family’s disappearance, John remained on speaking terms with the girl’s Grandfather. It was this relationship with Naomi’s Grandfather that provided John’s initial lead in recovering the drawings.
Naomi’s Grandfather had previously revealed to John that his spouse retained a bundle of their Granddaughter’s schoolwork in the attic of their home. Upon the death of Naomi’s Grandmother, John acquired the house, hoping to find the hidden collection. Unearthing the bundle wrapped in a plastic bag and afflicted by damp (picture), John became aware that the recovered collection consisted of only half of the work that he had seen whilst in Naomi’s company. After a protracted investigation he discovered that the remainder of the youngster’s work resided with Kent County Council, “probably languishing in a dark cupboard”. John then set to “re-uniting” both collections, his intention to present an exhibition illustrating a “remarkable talent, whose artistic creations illuminated a very dark period”.