Teenager offering lifeline to families of missing people

More than 20,000 are supporting a teenager's campaign to give the families of missing people more support from police forces.

Ben Thornbury, 19, from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, began a Facebook group in 2023 called Missing People - Lost and Loved, which currently has almost 5,000 members.

The group was an unofficial online space for people helping to search for Nicola Bulley, who went missing walking her dog in Lancashire in 2023.

Speaking to families, he says he has heard about a lack of communication between police forces, delays in releasing CCTV footage and not enough support. "Some families just feel left without answers, they feel hopeless," he said.

Mr Thornbury said that during the Nicola Bulley case, people had organised searches through the Facebook group.

His latest petition on change.org is to "bring this to the attention of the UK Ministers of State responsible for policing, urging them to review and improve the handling and support provided for missing persons cases".

Mr Thornbury said: "I've been talking to families for over two years and one thing that comes up is police forces are not giving enough support, and it comes up far too often.

"I'm willing to really push for some change," he added.

He has noticed families complaining of a "lack of communication" between different police forces if their missing loved one travels, as well as a delay in the release of CCTV footage.

Currently working part-time at a supermarket, Mr Thornbury is already well-known in his area as an avid community worker, organising litter-picking and campaigning for pothole repairs.

He started taking an interest in missing person cases two years ago when he noticed teenagers going missing locally.

"People needed posters creating and I had the expertise through college to make them - it was greatly appreciated."

Working with people from other missing person groups too, he says he goes through social media and, when he sees a case that people need a poster for, he will offer and ask for the police reference number to check the post is not fake. Families can then distribute it.

About 170,000 people are reported missing to the police every year in the UK, according to the National Crime Agency's Missing Persons Unit.

Sometimes people are found, said Mr Thornbury. "A woman's grandson went missing for around a week, and because of the publicity we got and the posters, he was found," he said.

Mr Thornbury has worked with billboard companies to highlight the issue, once paying £500 out of his own pocket for a campaign in Bristol.

In future, he hopes to meet more families in person and establish a registered charity.

Dep Ch Con Catherine Hankinson, national policing lead for missing people, explained that forces investigated hundreds of reports every day, each of which needed to be individually assessed.

She says they understand how "traumatic it can be for families" but there is a right to privacy if someone chooses to leave their home and go missing.

"We accept that there will always be room for improvement in investigations, which is why the national Missing People Policing Group works to improve the police and partnership response to missing people," she said.

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