He went home at 7 pm. but never got there.

[Marika33]

I'd like to ask you, can you use the verb "to go" in the past (went), in some kind of imperfect meaning?
What I mean, a person left their place with a goal in mind and we say about it even if we don't know if the goal is achieved (or even if we do know that the goal isn't achieved).
!!I'm not saying that "went" doesn't mean that the person got to the place where he went. Probably, most of the time "went" does mean that. I'm only asking if it is appropriate to use "went" even if the person didn't get to his destination!!

Some examples of mine where I would want to use "went" when the person hasn't yet reached his destination (still on her/his way) or never did.

• A: Where's the girl?!
  B: I don't know! Yesterday morning, she went to school earlier than usual. In the evening I called her classmates and they said they didn't see her yesterday in school at all (apparently, she didn't get there)! She could have been kidnapped on her way (to school)!
  
  
• A: Where did Mark go? I saw him leave your house ten minutes ago.
  B: He went to Birmingham. [Ten minutes is not long enough to get to Birmingham from B's place.]
  
  
• A: When did Dave go home from work yesterday?
  B: He went home at 7 pm. But I just called his wife and she said he never got home!
  
  
• [A guy wakes up at his girlfriend's place and sees a note.] I went to get us some breakfast, I'll be back soon. [He then walks to the window and sees his girlfriend getting into her car. = Which means she left her apartment only a couple of minutes ago.]

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.