Lelia

Yup, this did the trick.  So just rebuy the lens item from the NPC in OMP, and go back to Inverness and he'll respawn.

Ah, might have just received the solution to this, thanks to the [New Player] channel in game and Fifi (in game character).  You have to rebuy the lens from OMP.  Testing now and will report success or failure.

also having this similar issue.  I attempted to solo Roland at cl 8, and ended up going boom (my hull went to 0).  I took the tow, and returned to Inveness with reinforcement, but unable to get him to spawn again, in group or not.  Have tried relogging, gating in or out of a group, and docking in and out of station.   Have also did a fairly thorough search (though admittedly not the entire planet) of the planet, up to 300m from closest nav's and around.