The small team helping reunite missing loved ones with their families - The Independent

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Lician Slee hadn’t spoken to or seen her father for more than six years, but she was desperate to find out where he was.

The pair had a fractured relationship and it wasn’t unusual for the 37-year-old to go years at a time without seeing him.

In June, she finally set out to get answers, but when she failed to get help from his friends in London where he lived, or from the prison service, where she feared he might be, she turned to Missing People.

Through its lost contact service, the charity, which is backed by The Independent, helps people across the UK who are desperate to find out where their loved ones are, but have been unable to get help from the police.

A few weeks after Lician got in touch with the free service, its staff discovered her father had died in 2022.

“I was shocked and confused,” she said. “How could he have been dead for four years and nobody knew? It was just mind-boggling to me.”

Because no attempt had been made to reach out to anyone, her father, who is Jamaican, was cremated against the family’s beliefs.

“When I called the funeral directors, I asked, ‘Where's his remains?’ Because I thought they would have saved his urn, and they said, ‘Oh no, he's on plot three’.

Lician said there were “boxes full of records and paperwork” that could have helped authorities identify and contact her family. Her aunt had been listed as his emergency contact, and he was named on Lician’s birth certificate.

“Missing People found him within four weeks,” she said. While she feels that her “grief has been stolen”, she said without the service she might never have known what happened to him.

“I truly believe we wouldn't have known he was dead at all,” she said.

Lician is one of dozens of people who get in touch with the lost contact service every week in the hope of being reunited with estranged or missing family members.

Once Missing People receives an application to locate a relative, its researchers will reach out to its search partners to see if they have anyone matching the details of that person is on their records. If they are located, they will be sent a letter from Missing People that explains a family member would like to make contact.

The Independent teamed up with Missing People last November to raise the vital funds needed to spread awareness of children who have gone missing and to create SafeCall, a free and confidential support service designed to keep young people safe.

Kirsty Hillman, the charity’s senior lost contact co-ordinator and one of two people helping to reconcile families, told The Independent: “Losing touch with a loved one can leave a painful gap in someone’s life. Our Lost Contact Service is the only free service of its kind dedicated to helping people reconnect with a missing or estranged loved one.

“It has helped bring so many family members back together, offering hope, answers and, where possible, the chance of a positive reconnection.”

Kath Johnson, 66, had gone three decades without seeing her younger brother after an argument over money caused them to lose contact.

But earlier this year, she responded to a post on Facebook from a woman asking for help to get in touch with Kath’s brother.

Kath found out that the woman was her brother’s daughter, who he didn’t know existed. “I saw a picture of her, and as soon as I saw her, I said, ‘You’ve got my brother's eyes’.”

She decided to help her niece by getting in touch with Missing People, who managed to track him down.

“They passed his phone number to me, and I called him,” she said. “It was nice to hear his voice again. I knew it was him straight away.

After 30 years of not speaking, Kath now rings her brother almost every day, and he has stayed with her at her home in Kent.

“Without this service, I would have never gotten in touch with my brother, because I wouldn’t have been able to find him.”

Mark, who lives in East Sussex, had been desperate to find his half-sister, whom he had lost touch with in the 1990s.

They only met when he was aged 19, as his mother had put his sister up for adoption before he was born. “We got on very well and met on a number of occasions,” he said. “We had a really good connection.”

But a few years later, in 1995, Mark, who didn’t want to give his surname, lost contact with her after things became difficult between her and their mother.

“I felt like I had the rug pulled from under my feet,” he said. “I got married, had kids of my own, but there was always someone that felt missing from me.”

Having had no luck finding her on his own, he reached out to Missing People for help last year, and they eventually passed over her email address.

“I must have read through my email about 500 times [before I sent it],” he said. She replied shortly after and “echoed all of my sentiment about how we got on so well”.

“I found out when we met up that he was looking for me as well. I had so many emotions going around my head, but I was so chuffed to see her...It was almost like we'd seen each other about a fortnight back.”

Mark praised Missing People’s “fantastic” service, and said he may never have spoken to his sister again if it wasn’t for its help.

“For someone in my situation, it really was invaluable. It would have been so difficult to find her, and it's not as if I didn't try.”

Please donate now to The Independent and Missing People’s SafeCall campaign, which has raised £165,000 to create a free, nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support.

For advice, support and options if you or a child you love goes missing, contact safecall.org.uk