Only a few of the quarter of a million people reported missing in Britain each year make it to the front page of the papers, and this thoughtful documentary tells some of their stories. With 300 calls per week to attend to, the Greater Manchester Police are kept busy. Each one could be the grisliest of murders, or more likely the result of a family bust-up and too much booze.
Those of you who frequent the toxic parents threads may recognise Josephine O’Hara. You certainly will if your name is Pauline and your 81-year-old mother decided to beat it for a few days with £10,000 in her pocket a few months ago. Where was she heading? Vegas? Nah… an old folks’ home. But she’s not going to tell her panicked daughter, just cos, well, cos she’s pretty horrid it would seem.
This, and others, are the successful cases, all solved within a few days, but it’s the unsolved that haunt the most. Vinnie Derrick, for example, disappeared five years ago after a night out with his mates, and his mother still walks the route he took in case his body lies there. His wife, well, she can hardly move on, and his now-seven-year-old son frets that someone stole his dad’s cab fare and that’s what’s taking him so long to return. Tragic, all the more so for the fact that you just know that their motivation for participating in this documentary is that they hope against hope that somewhere, somehow, Vinnie will see them all and come home.
