Cold case officer helping to bring families closure

Policeman dealing with over 100 cases involving Midlanders missing since 1968

- BEN PERRIN News Reporter

A WEST Midlands Police officer probing scores of missing person cases has found people who simply vanished living all over the world.

Pc Shaun Reeve, who works in the force’s long-term investigation team, is one of two officers dealing with 100 historic cases in Birmingham and across the region.

The cases range in date from 1968 to last year and sit on a police database separate to live or current missing person cases.

One recent riddle cracked by the officer was 16-year-old Sheila Fox - one of the West Midlands Police's oldest missing person cases from the 1970s.

Pc Reeve says people go missing usually due to one of four reasons — they're lost, through an accident, criminality or voluntarily, including suicide.

The process of finding people can prompt a list of enquiries, involving financial checks, phone usage, social media posts, travel checks, police contact, prison checks, or hospital, healthcare and social care inquiries.

Pc Reeve, based at Park Lane in Newtown, told the Post: "I leave absolutely no stone unturned, I investigate everything and it’s like putting a puzzle together.

"For me this is a dream job and it's something I love. It's about trying to bring closure to families.

"A lot of the families know they probably won't have closure in terms of finding the person, but knowing somebody is dedicated to continue to search is some sort of closure for the families in itself.

"At least they know every single thing is being done to find their loved one. The missing people don’t have a voice. They deserve everything thrown into it to look for them.

"You can use your imagination for the investigation - you're not set to particular things and can think outside the box."

Pc Reeve is currently probing 101 investigations. That is down from around 320 when the specialist team was set up in 2022.