Date: 28 August 2009
Police are continuing to search for a missing 29-year old Grainthorpe man, who was last seen in April 2009 over the bank holiday weekend.
James Frances Gower, known as Jamie, was last seen in the Scartho area of Grimsby on Monday 13 April when he spent some time with a friend. There have been no positive sightings of Jamie since then, but his moped was recovered in Baysgarth Park, Barton on Tuesday 21 April, having been stolen from an area close to the Old Mill public house car park in Barton where it had been left secured with a crash helmet. Although police cannot be certain, they believe the moped had been left in the car park sometime over the April Bank holiday weekend.
Jamie has been unemployed since October 2008, having been made redundant from a Scunthorpe-based electrical company. He has been actively looking for work and last attended the Job Centre in Louth on 27 March. Jamie failed to turn up at the last appointment on 8 May.
Numerous enquiries by Humberside Police and Lincolnshire Police have been carried out in a bid to trace Jamie, or sightings of him. This included a media briefing on 21 May where the senior investigating officer provided information to journalists in order to assist the police enquiry.
CCTV cameras in areas where Jamie was thought to have gone and frequented have been checked, house-to-house enquiries, hospital checks, financial enquiries, a national Missing Persons Bureau circulation, land and airborne searches, a poster campaign in the Barton on Humber area and an advert through the national charity Missing People in the Daily Mirror have all been undertaken, but so far no confirmed sightings have been forthcoming.
The appeal in May generated three possible sightings of Jamie:
- at the Salvation Army in Louth
- a motorist called in saying they had given a lift to someone matching Jamie’s description near to the Humber Bridge and
- a man seen acting suspiciously on the Humber Bridge around the April Bank Holiday weekend.
Sadly, none of these sightings have been confirmed.
Efforts have also been made to contact Jamie, however, his mobile phone has been switched off since the April Bank Holiday weekend.
“We are still actively carrying out enquiries to trace Jamie, including regular checks on his bank account and monitoring his mobile phone,” explained Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Gibbon, who is leading the enquiry.
“Regular reviews are also being carried out to ensure that everything that can be done to trace Jamie is being done,” he said.
Jamie’s family, although realistic to the possibility that Jamie may have come to some harm, remain hopeful that he has simply gone away and will return. In the meantime, police are appealing for anyone who believes they may have seen Jamie either locally or further a field to call in.
Anyone with information should contact Lincolnshire Police on 0300 111 0300.
