Missing people - Make a call if you can

THE worry and heartbreak caused by the disappearance of a child, a brother, a sister or a friend has few equals even in today’s hard-nosed world.

Today Audrey Fitzpatrick, whose daughter Amy has been missing for three years, exemplifies the pain and determination felt by those left by a loved one when she made what seems the simplest of requests — pick up a phone and let us know you are safe.

That may not always be possible but in very many cases it is. Thousands of people disappear every year but not all disappearances are the consequences of crime. Very many signify collapsed relationships, some no more than a desire to build a new life.

In some cases the passage of time might make it possible to make the phone call that could resolve so much mystery and heartbreak. Not to do so, if it was possible, just makes an already cruel world even more so.