FOUND...AT LAST

With one of the UK's longest-running missing persons cases finally solved after 52 years, we explore other high-profile disappearances

- LOUISE BATY

The disappearance of a loved one is terrifying to contemplate but, sadly, it's a prospect countless families face, with over 170,000 people reported missing every year in the UK. While 76% of missing adults are found within 24 hours, some remain unaccounted for years – even decades – later. But hope is never lost. Incredibly, a missing person case made headlines again recently after it was finally solved 52 years on from the disappearance.

After Sheila Fox vanished from Coventry city centre in 1972, aged 16, her parents gave police a black and white photo to help identify her and she remained on record as a missing person for five decades.

In December 2024, cold case detectives unearthed the photo and shared it online. 'Within hours of the appeal, members of the public got in touch with information which led the team to her,' explained a West Midlands Police spokesperson.

It turned out that Sheila, now 68, was safe and well, and living 80 miles away in Watford, now married and with a family of her own. It also appeared that, unbeknown to authorities, she'd also reconnected with relatives during the intervening years.

Here, we investigate other long-running missing persons cases resolved after years of mystery and heartache.

'Kept in a shed'

Walking to school on 10 June 1991, Jaycee Dugard, 11, screamed as she was dragged into a grey car. With Jaycee missing, the community in Lake Tahoe, California, rallied round. 'As long as Jaycee is alive, there's hope,' her mum Terry Probyn insisted.