He was working as a telecoms engineer after finishing an apprenticeship, was popular with colleagues and friends and had a rich life full of hobbies: diving, cars and playing football.
Nine weeks later, his mother came home to discover he had taken his own life. Near his body was a crumpled payslip, which she believes provides a vital clue to why her son took his own life. The Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit, which is part of the procurator-fiscal's office which investigates non-criminal deaths, is currently probing the circumstances surrounding the young man's death.
In the months leading up to his death in October 2011, David had spoken of being bullied by management after several incidents at his workplace in Greenock.
But despite asking his employer, BT Openreach, to investigate the allegations, more than a year on David's mother, Michele Millar, 46, says they have failed to respond to her concerns.
She has now decided to speak out in the hope it may stop "even one person" contemplating taking the same action as her much-loved son did.
She said: "They [BT Openreach] haven't answered any of my questions and are basically just brushing it under the carpet.
"It doesn't matter whether it is in BT or any other workplace, I don't want any other boy and their family to go through this. I would say to anyone who is being bullied, speak out - tell people about it until somebody listens and somebody does something about it."
David Orr started working with BT after he left school at 18 and is said to have "loved" his engineering job, which involved repairing and installing telephone lines. However, shortly after he finished his apprenticeship in June 2011, he began to talk of experiencing problems with management, his mother said.She added that management "was just nitpicking at David, with everything in his workplace every day". She claimed the bullying continued outside work and affected his social life with smarmy comments, insults and David being belittled in front of others.
His mother said: "David was quite a sensitive boy and he would take all this personally."
Michele said that her son – who would usually phone her four or five times a day "just to check she was OK" – had spoken of difficulties with management over issues relating to holiday records and the payment of wages, and she believes David was becoming increasingly concerned he might lose his job.
Shortly before his death, she said he told her of an incident when he was doing overtime on a Saturday in early September and had to travel to work in the Cowal Peninsula.
"When they do overtime they have got to do three jobs and he only had time to do two jobs," she said. "On Monday morning he got a call from management chastising him, asking why he only did two jobs.
"He tried to explain that the jobs took longer than normal and he had driven to each job and then his day was up. I told him to phone his union and they reassured him that all the details would have been recorded on the tracking system.
"But David had got this in the back of his mind on top of everything else and management threatened to put him under investigation."
Almost a month later, on Tuesday October 4, 2011, David's mother – as well as other family and friends – spoke to him several times during the morning and did not suspect anything was wrong. But when she returned after work she found her son had killed himself.
Weeks later she examined the payslip found near his body and realised he had not been paid his overtime for the Saturday.
"I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back," she said. "He had remarked to me the Friday before if they don't pay me I am not going back to work for them."
After his death, Michele raised concerns with the procurator-fiscal over the incidents at work in the months leading up to her son's suicide. An investigation is ongoing.
But she says attempts to get BT Openreach to respond have failed. She sent a letter detailing the incidents, which received a reply from an employee relations director on January 11, 2012, stating they were "actively progressing" the matters raised and would "hope to be in a position to respond by towards the end of January of February". A year on and she has still heard nothing.
"There was nothing else to suggest in David's life what would cause him to do this," she said. "He wasn't at the doctor for depression or anything, his medical records show that.
"He was going on holiday, he was going to concerts, he had so much to look forward to. He was a boy who could walk into a room full of people, walk out and have made friends with everybody."
She added: "It is the worst thing that could ever happen in your life. You hear people saying they are broken-hearted. I know what that means, I feel as if I have got something missing. Maybe David was insignificant to them [BT], but he was mine and I am appalled at their lack of respect."
A close friend of David Orr's, who did not want to be named, said his friend had discussed the incidents at work every time something happened. "More than most I probably knew how stressed out he was by it," he said, adding that he felt his friend was "just getting picked on".
Bobby Kelly, branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said it was a "very sad and difficult case" which is still affecting BT Openreach workers more than a year on.
He said: "Many people are not able to move on and CWU is giving support to those members. We would like to see greater support from management to help achieve closure on this disturbing event so that the whole workforce and community can deal with the tragic events of a young man's death and move forward in a more positive way."
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: "The investigation into the death, under the direction of Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit, is ongoing and the family will be kept updated in relation to any significant developments."
A spokesman for BT Openreach said: "David is sadly missed by his colleagues in BT. However, we are unable to comment further as his death is subject to investigation by the procurator-fiscal and we have co-operated with these inquiries."
For help and advice, contact: Breathing Space, an NHS helpline 0800 83 85 87 (Mon-Thurs 6pm-2am, weekend Friday 6pm-Monday 6am or The Samaritans 08457 90 90 90 (24 hours)
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