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People Who Just Disappear (Go Missing)

I can imagine a child, if pressed, could walk a long way.

But wouldn't a lost child find help before they collapsed? I cannot imagine one walking until they were exhausted
 
Kondoru said:
But wouldn't a lost child find help before they collapsed? I cannot imagine one walking until they were exhausted
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doesn't it depend on which direction they go? straight line or circle :(
 
Frideswide said:
We don't know, there may have been reasons. 1988 was a different time.
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Also, there are times when an uncooperative toddler/child can create a scene that could make the adult look like they're doing something awful when in fact they are just trying to get said child into the car in time to pick up a sibling from school, or similar. It's probably an incident that only gained its significance in hindsight.

I can understand the argument that we should all challenge that sort of thing because our embarrassment if we've overestimated the menace of the situation is infinitely preferable to the alternative if we haven't overestimated it, but it's one thing to understand that principle and another to act on it, possibly repeatedly.

Anyway, I've only managed to continue to divert this thread away from vanishing people, sorry!
 
Marshdweller said:
Also, there are times when an uncooperative toddler/child can create a scene that could make the adult look like they're doing something awful when in fact they are just trying to get said child into the car in time to pick up a sibling from school, or similar. It's probably an incident that only gained its significance in hindsight.
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That's a good point. As I have mentioned before, when I used to drive to/from work in my nurse uniform and I'd see a friend walking the same way I would stop the car, jump out and grab them, yelling 'Mrs Jones! You MUST have your bath!' and pretend to bundle them, protesting, into the car.

We'd have a good laugh but I sometimes wonder why nobody reported it.
 
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Woman disappeared from yacht in Caribbean

There was an apparent 9 hour delay in her being reported missing.

Police have said they are unsure if a British woman reported missing from a yacht in the Caribbean was onboard.

Sarm Heslop, 41, from Southampton, had been staying with her boyfriend, US citizen Ryan Bane, on the boat moored off St John in the US Virgin Islands.

Miss Heslop is known to have gone for dinner with Mr Bane on Sunday, 7 March in St John.

It was understood she had returned to the yacht and gone to bed.

Her possessions, including her bank cards and mobile phone, were still onboard when she vanished.

Virgin Islands Police Department said: "Investigators cannot confirm with certainty, if and when Ms Heslop boarded the Siren Song on March 7."

VIPD said the investigation into Ms Heslop's disappearance was being assisted by the FBI and police in the UK, who were "finding and interviewing witnesses".
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hunck said:
Woman disappeared from yacht in Caribbean

There was an apparent 9 hour delay in her being reported missing.

Police have said they are unsure if a British woman reported missing from a yacht in the Caribbean was onboard.
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I think i read the delay was not in the reporting of the person but the seach and rescue operation being launched.
Here is the quote:

"Police said US citizen Mr Bane reported her missing at 02:30 local time.

Friends said they could not fathom why the coastguard was only informed at about noon the same day."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-56467517
 
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Souleater said:
I think i read the delay was not in the reporting of the person but the seach and rescue operation being launched

"Police said US citizen Mr Bane reported her missing at 02:30 local time.

Friends said they could not fathom why the coastguard was only informed at about noon the same day."
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You're right - Ryan Bane reported her missing 02.30 local time [to the police?] but the coastguard was only informed at noon the same day. He's apparently refused police requests to search the boat.
 
hunck said:
You're right - Ryan Bane reported her missing 02.30 local time [to the police?] but the coastguard was only informed at noon the same day. He's apparently refused police requests to search the boat.
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Yes that is suspicious and apparently hes disappeared now aswell
 
Aaarrr! Shiver me timbers there's every chance that they've found Every.

A handful of coins unearthed from a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in rural Rhode Island and other random corners of New England in the US may help solve one of the planet’s oldest cold cases.

The villain in the tale is a murderous English pirate who became the world’s most-wanted criminal after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca, then eluded capture by posing as a slave trader.

“It’s a new history of a nearly perfect crime,” said Jim Bailey, an amateur historian and metal detectorist who found the first intact 17th-century Arabian coin in a meadow in Middletown.

That ancient pocket change – the oldest ever found in North America – could explain how pirate Captain Henry Every vanished into the wind. ...

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40256309.html
 
I haven't read any details as to where he was found - by a roadside, covered up, buried?.. Or whether he'd been hit by a vehicle..
 
I believe I read somewhere that the remains were buried but as far as I know the police have not publicly indicated whether or not his bike has ever been found. Likewise, it’s a case I’ve taken a keen interest in.
 
Carse said:
Likewise, it’s a case I’ve taken a keen interest in.
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*nodding*

It's huge here in our bit of Glasgow. Still brought up and discussed :( Concensus seems to be that if it's not been solved by now then it'll unravel when someone dies, or changes their mindset.
 
Carse said:
I believe I read somewhere that the remains were buried but as far as I know the police have not publicly indicated whether or not his bike has ever been found. Likewise, it’s a case I’ve taken a keen interest in.
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My recollection is that he was somehow found because of the bike, or was that speculation?
 
Souleater said:
I was under the impression that his bike is still missing
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Perhaps the bike was like what the dog did in the night: the dog did nothing. It was dead giveaway.

Maybe the bike wasn't mentioned by the police because there was hope it would turn up somewhere and give a clue to the missing man's whereabouts.
 
escargot said:
Perhaps the bike was like what the dog did in the night: the dog did nothing. It was dead giveaway.

Maybe the bike wasn't mentioned by the police because there was hope it would turn up somewhere and give a clue to the missing man's whereabouts.
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I think that was the idea yes
 
Souleater said:
I think that was the idea yes
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To be fair, this might have come out of my very own head. :chuckle:

When bikes are stolen or 'found' they are usually sold on. Some end up in bike shops or secondhand shops where the staff can be asked to keep an eye open.

So if a bike of the right description turned up the Bill could check up on it.
 
catseye said:
People underestimate the walking power of children. Even small children can cover quite a distance.

In these modern times we tend to have our opinion coloured by the fact that a lot of children don't walk very far and are usually carted around in cars or buggies and will, in fact, complain, moan, whine, whinge and tantrum about being asked to walk 300 yards down the road to the nearest park.

But they can, physically, go a really long way. Ask any mother trying to manage a toddler in a busy shopping centre (lockdown permitting, obviously).
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This is what some believed happened to little Ben Needham when he went missing on Kos. Searches were mainly done in the direction he was expected to have known best, which was downhill towards town, rather than uphill to an undeveloped area.

Seemed reasonable to me because as you say, little kids on a mission can cover quite a distance.

Sadly it seems Ben only wandered a few hundred yards across to a nearby building site where he was accidentally run over and then buried by panicking builders.
 
escargot said:
This is what some believed happened to little Ben Needham when he went missing on Kos. Searches were mainly done in the direction he was expected to have known best, which was downhill towards town, rather than uphill to an undeveloped area.

Seemed reasonable to me because as you say, little kids on a mission can cover quite a distance.

Sadly it seems Ben only wandered a few hundred yards across to a nearby building site where he was accidentally run over and then buried by panicking builders.
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Yes, I just don't understand why search parties for small children tend to do the 'oh, he/she wouldn't/couldn't have gone very far, he/she never liked being away from home'. Show even a small child something they want to get to (a pony, a dog, a tractor) and they can get much further than anyone would think.

I lost Daughter One at the beach once. It was October half term and a friend with one child and me with my five, had gone to Scarborough North Bay to give them a run on the sand. We'd just got out of the car at the top of the cliff and done a head count, and my eldest daughter wasn't there. After a moment's panic (and trying to remember whether she'd come with us in the first place) one of the children said she had run on down to the beach. By the time we got down to the beach, she was in the water, swimming. She will have been about eight. It was OCTOBER! But the draw to water for her was such that she couldn't wait and once on the beach she 'needed' to be swimming.

If (heaven forbid) she had drowned and been carried out to sea, her disappearance may well have remained a mystery.
 
catseye said:
Yes, I just don't understand why search parties for small children tend to do the 'oh, he/she wouldn't/couldn't have gone very far, he/she never liked being away from home'. Show even a small child something they want to get to (a pony, a dog, a tractor) and they can get much further than anyone would think.

I lost Daughter One at the beach once. It was October half term and a friend with one child and me with my five, had gone to Scarborough North Bay to give them a run on the sand. We'd just got out of the car at the top of the cliff and done a head count, and my eldest daughter wasn't there. After a moment's panic (and trying to remember whether she'd come with us in the first place) one of the children said she had run on down to the beach. By the time we got down to the beach, she was in the water, swimming. She will have been about eight. It was OCTOBER! But the draw to water for her was such that she couldn't wait and once on the beach she 'needed' to be swimming.

If (heaven forbid) she had drowned and been carried out to sea, her disappearance may well have remained a mystery.
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Oh lawdy, yeah, been there, done that.

One of mine escaped his pushchair in the Co-Op Superstore and sneaked off to steal yogurt. He was found within minutes surrounded by half-empty tubs and covered in the stuff. :chuckle:

One of those Mr Ballen stories is about exactly that scenario, where a child ran ahead to a deserted beach and disappeared.

As I recall, he went down some steps in sight of his father who was attending to his other child and was never seen again. Seems obvious that he ended up in the sea but his body was never found. Brrr.
 
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And also there's the psychology of children. They run and hide because they think it will be funny. Mum searches, in increasing desperation, and sounds angry, so child stays hidden. The search widens, everyone sounds really worried and cross, so child thinks 'I'm going to be in trouble. I'll just go home and wait there until it's all over'. Tries to make their own way home, sometimes from several miles away and something bad happens.

Children very much live in the moment. They literally cannot think ahead and think 'that might be a silly thing to do'. They do it first and then find out it was a silly thing to do. Saying 'Be Careful' to a child never ever worked...
 
catseye said:
And also there's the psychology of children. They run and hide because they think it will be funny. Mum searches, in increasing desperation, and sounds angry, so child stays hidden. The search widens, everyone sounds really worried and cross, so child thinks 'I'm going to be in trouble. I'll just go home and wait there until it's all over'. Tries to make their own way home, sometimes from several miles away and something bad happens.

Children very much live in the moment. They literally cannot think ahead and think 'that might be a silly thing to do'. They do it first and then find out it was a silly thing to do. Saying 'Be Careful' to a child never ever worked...
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A kid at a playgroup I helped run used to hide. A couple of times people were there long after the place had closed, still looking for him, and the police were about to be called before he was found.

He wasn't afraid to go home or anything like that, he was just playing tricks.

I was up for telling his mother to take him elsewhere and would have insisted if he'd done it when I was on duty. Once was bad enough but repeatedly wasting everyone's time was beyond a joke.

He could have done it once too often and got himself into a serious mess.

Hiding as a prank must have been part of his family culture. Perhaps his parents found it cute.
I'd have shown any kid of mine doing that a different sort of hiding.
 
I imagine kids these days have no idea what "a good hiding" means...
 
SimonBurchell said:
I imagine kids these days have no idea what "a good hiding" means...
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They would if I turned up. :evil:

Had a few myself over the years, notably from a despicable ex who got slappy in drink.

These days I savour the possibility of him collecting that privilege himself after serving time for sex offences.

Just the thought that he worries whether any new acquaintance might Google his name and take umbrage brings a happy smile. :D

There I go again - aaaahhhhhhh. :cool:
 
Adventures With Purpose is a YouTube channel, basically involving the recovery of submerged vehicles in the US with the aim of solving missing persons cases. Pretty successful they are too. Shame that the Police don't have the resources or will to do the same.
 
It does seem to nearly always be the case that (particularly in America), if someone goes missing with their car, they are nearly always in the nearest large body of water. People can hide and change identity. Cars can't. Well, I suppose you could change plates, but there are other identifiable things about a car. I guess it would be hard for the police to know where to look if there's a lot of water about.
 
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