New series of podcast asking for help to search for missing people

A brand-new series of The Missing hosted by Pandora Sykes is set to launch.

Every year, around 170,000 people go missing in the UK, which is one disappearance every 90 seconds. On top of that, many more go unreported and although the majority are found safe and well, there are families left never knowing where their loved ones are.

Each episode of The Missing tells the story of a long-term missing person who has never been traced. Pandora talks to family and friends to find out more about each person’s story and the events leading up to their disappearance.

She asks where did they go, what happened to them and, crucially, does anyone listening have any information? 

Every case receives a brand-new investigation from the experts at the charity, Locate International and listeners are asked to become part of the search. They’re invited to offer their own tips and ideas to help.

Since the podcast began, the charity has received dozens of new leads which have been processed and investigated, and more than 200 supporters of The Missing have become volunteers at Locate International.

Series five hears from several families including those of 38-year-old Jean Tighe, from Ireland, who vanished after leaving her hostel in Portugal in July 2020, 16-year-old Kevin Hicks who walked out his Croydon home to buy some eggs in 1986 and never came back and 23-year-old Steven Clark who disappeared during a family walk in Saltburn, North Yorkshire in 1992.

The podcast has been shortlisted twice for Best True Crime at the British Podcast Awards and nominated for Outstanding Episodic Series at the True Crime Awards 2023 later this month.

From Podimo and What’s The Story Sounds, The Missing will be available weekly on all major podcast platforms from Monday 12 June.

photos of cases featured in the missing series five
Photos in episode order below: from top left to right, bottom left to right.

Series five of The Missing covers the following cases:

1. Steven Clark

In September 2020, Steven Clark’s parents were taken into custody under suspicion of killing their own son. He had vanished during a walk in the seaside village of Saltburn, North Yorkshire almost two decades earlier when he was 23 years old. Since ruled out as suspects, his parents and sister continue the search for Steven.

2. Carmel Fenech

When 16-year-old Carmel Fenech went missing in London in the summer of 1998, her mother Deirdre didn’t panic at first. Carmel, from Crawley, had a well-documented drug problem that had seen her go AWOL before. But this time Camel never came home. She was last sighted at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court in South London with an older, unknown man. Decades later and her mother is no closer to the truth.

3. James Nutley

In 2004, the Nutley family received a phone call to say their 25-year-old son James had failed to return to his hotel after the first night of a golfing trip in Tenby. His mother, Catherine, immediately drove the hundred-odd miles from Wales. It’s a drive she and her husband Jeff make twice a year to this day: a pilgrimage they have no intention of stopping until they find out the truth about what happened to James that night nearly 20 years ago.

4. Jean Tighe

Jean, from county Cavan in Ireland, walked out of her hostel in Portugal on July 13th 2020. She was spotted leaving with a Brazilian man, then vanished without a trace. The 38-year-old’s sister, Leona, has been trying to locate Jean in a foreign country with an uncooperative police force ever since. Desperate for answers and support, Leona speaks to The Missing about what she knows so far.

5. Sandra Grant

A vulnerable person, Sandra Grant had struggled with alcohol addiction and mental health problems over the years. The 48-year-old was last seen leaving a flat in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex on 14th November 2003. Her three daughters, Carrie, Michaela and Lauren, have tried to piece together her movements and bring their mother home… But have never heard from her since.

6. Simon Hodgson-Greaves

An avid birdwatcher, Simon travelled to Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire coast, the UK’s largest mainland seabird colony. At 48 years old, the last few years had brought a breakdown in Simon’s marriage and a recent bipolar diagnosis. Over 5,000 miles away in Dubai, his sister Rachel received a phone call telling her Simon’s beloved campervan had been abandoned and that her brother was, and still is, nowhere to be found.

7. Kevin Hicks

On a cold spring night in Croydon, 1986, 16-year-old Kevin Hicks walked out his front door. He had nothing but a pound in his pocket and headed in the direction of the local shop to buy some eggs. He never came back. Over 35 years later, his younger sister Alex is still waiting for Kevin to come home.

8. James Miller

On the night of December 22nd 2020, James walked out of his family home, never to return. A 37-year-old mechanic, James was already wrestling with depression and the break up of his marriage… Did he reach the end of his tether after spending the better part of a year unable to meet his friends in the pub, or watch his beloved Warrington Wolves in action, due to COVID-19 lockdown? It’s a question his sister, Emma, desperately needs answered…

9. Sandra Collins

In a quiet seaside village like Killala, on the west coast of Ireland, the disappearance of one person can upend an entire community. That’s what happened when 28-year-old Sandra Collins left her home on a wet December night in the year 2000. For her brother, Patrick, her disappearance has cast a long, dark shadow over the region and has haunted the Collins family ever since.

10. Lisa Pour

Most long-term missing person cases lay dormant for years at a time. But for Lauren Saffery, whose 40-year-old mother Lisa Pour had disappeared, everything changed when an anonymous phone call was made to the Metropolitan police. The mysterious voice at the end of the line claimed to have information vital to the case of Lisa who was last seen in Willesden Green, north west London, in January 2013.

If you have information on any of the cases covered in the podcast, please visit www.themissingpodcast.org.

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