WITHOUT A TRACE

Unsolved cases leave loved ones in limbo

- BY DANNY DE VAAL

THOUSANDS of people are reported missing to the Gardai every single year in Ireland.

Most will turn up alive in the hours and days that follow. Sadly, the remains of others will be returned to grieving families for closure.

But there is another group, those that are reported missing and never found.

The ones who truly appear to have vanished into thin air without a trace.

Their faded missing persons posters with large red lettering remain on display in GP surgeries, local takeaways and community noticeboards for months and sometimes even years.

Since 2021, 45,910 missing persons reports have been made to the Gardai for 17,691 individuals — 198 of which have not been found.

They are among the thousands of faces, stretching back to the 1970s, that stare out from the Missing Persons section on An Garda Siochana’s website.

Some are smiling, some look deeply troubled, while the picture used for others is barely recognisable.

It is a depressing catalogue of misery showing a motley assortment of individuals who are only connected because they've never been found.

Behind each case is a family which has been plunged into the dizzying depths of despair — where they are paralysed with heartache and their lives are permanently on hold.

They are truly trapped in limbo. They are plagued with torment and anguish, and subjected to a lifetime of wondering what happened to their loved one.

They spend countless hours each and every day racking their brains for any sort of clues to help bring their nightmare to an end.

Today, the Irish Daily Star launches its “Missed” campaign to highlight the forgotten, unsolved or under-reported cases of missing people across Ireland.

Our series will delve into the country’s most high-profile cases from Trevor Deely who vanished after a work Christmas party in 2000 to schoolboy Philip Cairns' disappearance in 1986.