Various missing children cases worldwide - plus the occasional adult

This was always a bizarre one - Charlene Downes who went missing in Blackpool 13 years ago, never to be seen again.

Just in the news again this morning.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/charlene-downes-murder-new-cctv-9168783

No idea where to put this article but will put it here:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/worried-parents-fearing-missing-children-9174096

Lifeguards at a British beach where seven people died last summer claim they are being stretched by parents thinking their missing children are the next "Madeleine McCann or Ben Needham".

Rother District Council officer Robert Cass told an inquest another difficulty for lifeguards at Camber Sands beach, East Sussex, was an increase in the number of people unable to understand English.

As many as 25,000 people can use the beach on a single day.

Rother District Council officer Robert Cass said it takes up "a lot of our time" because the rightfully worried parents are "thinking they have the next Ben Needham or Maddie McCann."

I'm not sure what to make of that one!

It's interesting though to see the two missing children's names linked together like that - it may give more people the idea that each case is as dubious as the other.

I make it out to be an absolute ridiculous story that's been made up on the spot and why now. For a start at this time of the year, this particular beach will be deserted.

So on a hot summers day weekend the beach probably is packed and kids are playing, then some might wander off out of their parents sight for a few moments. Any stories about these kids actually going missing? No because they didn't. Then we have a story about 7 people in total, teenagers and adults that have sadly drowned there in the past.

If these kids do go out of sight for a few moments and the parents rush to the lifeguard or whatever, then do they really say my kid was playing over there but now he's wandered off, I think she/he is the next Madeleine or Ben...... I doubt it.

A nonsense story.

There was a lot of speculation at the time that it was would-be migrants who were washed up on the beach. This seems to be a retrofitting effort to prove that was not the case, with a Maddie/Ben angle thrown in to get people to actually read it.

Indeed. You're probably right there.

Just watched Richard D Hall. Didn't agree with all he said - I suspect something different became of Ben - but I do agree that there is a coordinated attempt to bracket the two cases together in people's minds. Hence them turning up together in stories that don't have anything to do with either of them, like this one for instance.

I didn't catch his conspiracy theory about media involvement etc but regarding the actual story mentioned which is this....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-37835937

... then it's not exactly appealing to your average 'Mirror' reader so they jazz it up a bit and shoehorn the names of the 2 most famous 'missing' children in so it attracts the desired clickbait.

Probably doesn't warrant its own thread but didn't know where to put it. So started one anyway.

Mystery of the Chinese boy who 'fell down a deep well' after a large rescue operation involving 80 diggers 'found the chute to be EMPTY




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3923808/Mystery-Chinese-boy-fell-deep-massive-rescue-operation-involving-80-diggers-chute-empty.html

ETA - Should've put it on the Missing Children thread actually. Move if need be Mods.

Done!

That little boy was found. But sadly found dead.

Where have you seen that, Andrew? I can't find anything about it.

A strange one:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/schoolboy-vanished-bike-ride-school-9233949

Boy vanishes on bike ride to school leaving letter to parents saying he was 'bored of life' but would return within a year

I think that many of us will have had feelings of wanting to get away for a new life when we were teenagers - and maybe when we were older too.

This lad seemed to know exactly what he was doing but the worry is how will he find the means to support himself - including somewhere to live - at 15?

Andrew wrote:A strange one:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/schoolboy-vanished-bike-ride-school-9233949

Boy vanishes on bike ride to school leaving letter to parents saying he was 'bored of life' but would return within a year

That clunking great reference to the Missing People charity has got my spider senses tingling.

I'm surprised they haven't managed to locate him in the last 9 weeks.

He must've took a lot of cash with him to be sufficient as presumably if he used a bank card they'd be able to trace him quite quickly.

Very strange indeed.

unreorganised wrote:

Andrew wrote:A strange one:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/schoolboy-vanished-bike-ride-school-9233949

Boy vanishes on bike ride to school leaving letter to parents saying he was 'bored of life' but would return within a year

That clunking great reference to the Missing People charity has got my spider senses tingling.

I missed that bit.

His father added: "If you don't want to ring home there's a charity called Missing People.


If he called them then they'd probably actually tell him to stay missing.

ETA - had to look it up on the website to see if there was a reference to him. There is.

https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/arthur-heeler-frood-16-004433

I wonder what happened to this boy - who reminds me of my son at that age - who disappeared clearly of his own volition nine years ago.

Beware, there is mention of the McCanns in this link.

http://helpustofindandrew.weebly.com/in-the-press.html

Certainly is a very baffling one about Andrew Gosden. A very bright and clever young boy by all accounts. But bright enough to disappear undetected all this time....

Sadly I don't think he's alive.

A bit more here about the 15 year old lad who left a note:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3928726/Where-Arthur-Heartbroken-parents-grammar-school-boy-15-ran-way-home-saying-bored-life-reveal-anguish.html

Arthur was found today in Honiton he's now back with his parents.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-37994686

That's good to hear - I hope that whatever caused him to leave in the first place isn't still unresolved though.

Speaking generally, teenagers returned home against their will aren't likely to stay there for long.

Apparently one of the reasons was because he was bored.

I was bored last thursday so i went to Asda and spent over £100 on nothing that i needed,i should have just ran away it probably would have been cheaper.

I'm pleased he has now been found,he was gone a long time.