Imagine what you would do if one of your loved-ones walked out of the house one day and never came back. It’s unthinkable, isn’t it.
But thousands of British families go through exactly that every single year. And while most people that go missing are teenagers, many are adults with partners, children of their own and perhaps grandchildren.
The recent coverage of the reappearance of canoe – or kayak – man John Darwin probably brought it all back for many of these families. Darwin and his wife Anne appear to have staged his death to cash in on life insurance policies.
But for the vast majority of the disappeared, financial gain is unlikely to come into it. Depression, debt and family breakdown are more common triggers.
It’s incredible how the people left behind can continue to function normally when this happens. Not knowing what’s happened and being unable to grieve is, they say, far worse than knowing someone’s dead and having a grave to visit.