The nicest person to have ever graced the earth friends tributes to tragic silvestras stoskus

In a touching tribute to the memory of “one of our own”, around 200 people held a candlelit vigil outside the home of murdered Kinnegad youth, Silvestras Stoskus, on Friday night.

The previous evening, when word of the tragedy broke, some chose to mark the 20-year-old’s passing by leaving a lone candle lighting in a window of their homes.

At Friday’s gathering, there were tears and wistful smiles as young people – and parents who watched the young man grow up alongside their own children – remembered 'Twiggy’, who had been missing for nine days before his body was found last Wednesday by a man walking his farm at Broadford, County Kildare.

On Saturday, candles were still burning, some scenting the air with the mixed aromas of wax, spice and fruit, while dozens of bouquets of flowers lay on the ground in the front garden of the Stoskus family’s home at Bun Daire.

One young woman, who called to leave flowers on Saturday while The Westmeath Examiner was there, recalled Silvestras as being a lovely man.

“I knew him for eight or nine years,” she said, deeply saddened by the news of his loss. “He was always very happy; always in top form.”

During the gathering outside the Stoskus house, Chinese lanterns were released. There was much anger among those present at the portrayal of Mr Stoskus in the national media.

“We just wanted to show his family our support, and let them know we will miss him,” one friend said.

Some noted that the last song Silvestras shared on his Facebook account – on the day he went missing – was the Eminem track, 'When I’m Gone’.

At Columba College, Killucan, of which Mr Stoskus is a past pupil, the school marked his memory on Thursday by placing a photograph, some flowers and some religious objects on a table, to form a temporary shrine.

It is understood gardaí carried out searches of a number of premises in Kinnegad, the greater Westmeath area, and in Broadford over the weekend as part of their ongoing investigations. A garda spokesman said that several lines of enquiry are being pursued.

 

WARM TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS

Just 20 years old, full of life, talented at maths, keen on music and mad to buy his first car. That is the Silvestras that the young Kinnegad man’s friends want the world to know about. That’s the young man who has been snatched from their lives.

“Silvestras Stoskus was by far the nicest person to have ever graced the earth,” recalls his friend, Daniel Dalton, who got to know him back when they were both in first year at Columba College in Killucan.

“He never stopped smiling or laughing and was definitely the most kind-hearted person, always being there for people in their time of need.”

Stacey Keegan, who went out with Silvestras for 18 months, and who remains close to his family, holds a similar view. “He never ever had a frown on his face. He was always smiling and laughing. He was a big softy.”

“Silvestras was the most good-hearted person I knew, who loved his family and friends. His mother and little sister always came first,” she says.

He was bright at school – in fact “very intelligent” is how Daniel remembers him.

“But if there was one subject he loved, it was maths,” says Stacey.

After school, he headed to Moate Business School to do a course in software development, but his big love was cars, and for the months prior to his death, he worked alongside his father in a motor business in Athlone.

“In one of the last Facebook posts he made he put up a link to a car on Done Deal showing an Audi A4: that’s what he wanted to buy,” says Stacey.

Poignantly, he was already looking forward to his 21st birthday, which would have been on December 3 next. Already in the planning was a joint party that he and a friend whose birthday falls on December 2 were going to host.

“But that party is going ahead at the end of the year, still,” says Stacey.

Daniel says his outstanding memories of Silvestras hinge on their joint celebrations – many times over – of St Patrick’s Day.“Every single Paddy’s, we were together from 8am until 12 midnight, except this year and last.

“Paddy’s Day is also my birthday, and we didn’t spend it together last year because I was working in Belgium, and this year..., well, Silvestras was missing.”

It was actually from a member of An Garda Síochána that Daniel first came to know his friend was missing.

Even though normally, they were in touch nearly every day, Daniel,  just assumed Silvestras was busy when he hadn’t heard from him for a few days.

He’s not ashamed to say that when he learnt – online – that Silvestras’s body had been found, he walked up Kinnegad’s Main Street with tears flowing down his face.

Silvestras – who spoke Lithuanian fluently, loved his homeland, and loved music. “You’d never see him without his earphones!” remembers Stacey.

He enjoyed socialising, and had many friends. “If anyone invited him to a party, he was there,” she adds.

 

 

HURT BY MEDIA COVERAGE

Friends of Silvestras Stoskus are not just devastated at the loss of a hugely popular young man, but furious at articles that have been written about him in national newspapers since his body was discovered.

“Everything the media is saying is a disgrace and all lies,” his friend, Daniel Dalton, told The Westmeath Examiner over the weekend.

“You only needed to be in this town to understand the impact this loss has caused to his friends and family.

“Everyone is devastated. We just want everyone to know he was not like what the rumours are saying he was. We need people to know him and not other people’s stories.”

When word broke that Silvestras was missing, Daniel’s girlfriend set up a Facebook page trying to get the word out to people to watch out for him. Friends had gone out several times, searching fields, bogs and empty buildings in the area in a bid to find him.

Since the tragic outcome of Silvestras’s disappearance became known, young people who knew him have used that Facebook page to give voice to their anger at the way in which he has been written about in national newspapers.

They reckon that he has been labeled in a callous and careless way, and that the stories have given an unfair and inaccurate impression of a young man they knew as a solid and loyal friend.

“It’s disgraceful,” said Stacey Keegan, who went out with Silvestras for 18 months, and who remained close to the young Lithuanian, whose family moved to Kinnegad around nine years ago.

“A lot of heartless rubbish has been printed in the tabloids over the last few days. Silvestras wasn’t anything that was printed in those tabloids. The only thing they wrote that was right was that his body was found,” she said.

Referring to the nature of the coverage in the wake of the discovery of his body, she said: “There’s a list of words I could use to describe how we feel: disgusted, sickened...”