Some investigations have a happy ending
By the time you read this, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Olly Hughes will hopefully have been solved. For those who don’t know, Olly is the fictional five-year-old who goes missing while on a family holiday in France, in the Tuesday night drama shown on BBC1 this winter. Considered to be one of the BBCs most gripping dramas for years by critics, The Missing has some striking similarities to the real-life disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who went missing during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.
All claims that the fictional plot of the TV drama was copied from the real life McCann story have been dismissed, however, but it’s hard not to draw a comparison. The fate of Olly Hughes has struck a chord with many over what is a heart-wrenching scenario, but at least in the television drama, viewers get to find out what happened to the youngster, whatever the outcome. The search for answers about the missing McCann girl continues to this day and, despite numerous police investigations, her fate remains a mystery.
DNA testing has been carried out on a number of suspects and private investigators have also been involved in trying to solve the case. Because of the circumstances, the McCann disappearance is not exactly a standard missing persons investigation, although some of the procedures will be similar. Tried and tested methods have been used, such as legwork, knocking on doors, speaking to contacts, as well as more sophisticated means, deploying all available technology – but still no answers.
The McCann case has had a high profile in the media, so too the case of the 21-month-old toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared on the Greek island of Kos in 1991, and has never been seen since. These are harrowing cases, as are all incidents of missing persons, but sometimes there is a happy ending, or at least the mystery of someone’s disappearance is solved to the satisfaction and relief of their loved ones. Private investigators are regularly asked to trace a missing person but not always because a loved one is worried about their whereabouts, or there are some suspicious circumstances. Sometimes it’s more a case of simply wanting to find a long lost relative or friend for a whole host of other reasons – and all of them good!