THE homeless man who befriended rescued rough sleeper British tourist Hannah Almond in Peru has tragically died.
The 32-year-old from Grimsby spent around a month living under a bridge with the elderly vagrant and was filmed desperately trying to stop officials taking him away in a car after aggressive locals forced the pair to move and burned their belongings.
Hannah was found on Tuesday by a Good Samaritan acquaintance who travelled to Cusco from his home in the Peruvian capital, after going missing.
She is expected to be flown back to the UK to continue her recovery from mental health problems said to have been a contributing factor to the horror situation she found herself in after travelling to the South American country on a yoga retreat to “find herself.”
Overnight it emerged the elderly man she has spent most of the last few weeks with died at a charity-run OAP home he had been taken to after a brief stay at a hostel.
He is understood to have been found dead in his bed yesterday.
Local authorities have confirmed he has yet to be identified and are now expected to try to find out who he is with fingerprint tests as part of an autopsy and a possible public appeal.
If he cannot be formally identified he is likely to be buried in a pauper’s grave.
It is not yet clear whether Hannah, whose mental health is known to be unstable, has been told the devastating news about the man described as the sole person she trusted after ending up on the streets.
Henry Gonzales, a legal advisor for a Cusco public beneficence department, confirmed Hannah’s friend’s death, saying he had been admitted to the OAP residence where he died with the initials NN which stand for Ningun Nombre or No Name in English.
He also claimed the homeless man had appeared to be okay health-wise when local authorities took him in, adding: “He had already been assigned a bed and a room in his new residence.”
The dead man’s body is now at a morgue in Cusco.
There is nothing at this stage pointing to his death being crime-related.