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Found with a watch, a badge, a ring … seven unidentified bodies and the clues to who they are

UK Missing Persons Unit data shows that as of 2019/20 the Metropolitan Police force had 232 outstanding cases where a body or partial remains has been found but is still unidentified. Could the poignant objects found with these people be the key to reclaiming their names? Most unidentified bodies found in London are recovered wearing… Read More »Found with a watch, a badge, a ring … seven unidentified bodies and the clues to who they are

A man is missing for 29 years, then found dead. Here is the story of the family he left behind

Craig Fryer went missing in 1992, reappearing four times in the 29 years leading up to his death. His ex-wife, 55-year-old Wendie Evans, tells Missing in London about the impact that his disappearances had on the family. “Craig and I met in 1987, through a mutual friend of ours named Dean. They were both renting… Read More »A man is missing for 29 years, then found dead. Here is the story of the family he left behind

Locate International, the ex-coppers who refuse to stop looking for missing people

At the ripe age of 50, Silvia Pettem, the American historian and researcher of the city of Boulder, Colorado, realised that she was, in fact, passionate about researching cold cases i.e. criminal cases that had never been solved. After stumbling upon the grave of “Jane Doe, age about 20 years, April 1954” (Jane Doe is… Read More »Locate International, the ex-coppers who refuse to stop looking for missing people

Dead in the water: what the police do when they find a body in the River Thames

The River Thames is the second largest river in the UK. It is 205 miles long and runs across the southern area of the UK, starting from the Cotswolds in Gloustershire, draining the whole of Greater London, and finishing at the Thames Estuary where it flows out to the North Sea. According to Locate International… Read More »Dead in the water: what the police do when they find a body in the River Thames

The missing children we don’t talk about who have never been found

Some missing persons cases, like that of Madeleine McCann, were so extensively covered by the media that the story became almost impossible to avoid. However, not all missing persons cases were seen as such great fodder for stories, for a myriad of reasons, and subsequently never hit the press in a significant way or for… Read More »The missing children we don’t talk about who have never been found

‘I’m one of the luckiest people in the world’: how one Londoner found his long-lost family

Talking with Francisco Garcia felt familiar. Like the impression his writing gives, he is a friendly conversationalist – one that starts with a firm handshake. The 29-year-old’s first book, If You Were There, investigates missing people – those who have searched, those who still are searching, and those who have been found. All the while,… Read More »‘I’m one of the luckiest people in the world’: how one Londoner found his long-lost family

Lost contacts and outdated systems: accounting for London’s unidentified bodies

With its vast population of over 9million, the prevalence of unidentified bodies in London is not overly surprising. Since the sixties, 189 bodies found in the capital still remain anonymous – the most out of all police force areas in the UK. Emma Tilley, a PhD student at Staffordshire University who also works with Locate… Read More »Lost contacts and outdated systems: accounting for London’s unidentified bodies