Missing People Website

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Our history

Introduction
Early years (1986-89)
The Helpline (1990-92)
Getting the Message Home (1994)
Expansion (1993)
Recognition (1996-1998)
Lost from View (2002)
Pioneering work (2003-2004)
Financial problems (2005-2006)
New Beginnings (Today)
Finding Missing People and Supporting Families (2008)

Introduction

Missing People (formerly the National Missing Persons Helpline) has established itself as central to the search for and support of missing people, and those left behind, for more than a decade. The history of the charity is as varied as its work and is a true testament to the energy and passion of all those that have worked and volunteered steering it from its humble origins to the much-respected organisation it is today.

Early years (1986-89)

Following the high profile disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh from Fulham in July 1986, two sisters Janet Newman and Mary Asprey, were to become co-Founders of National Missing Persons Helpline, perhaps one of the most influential charities of recent times. With no news of Suzy's whereabouts media attention moved to the apparent lack of support for missing persons' families, such as Paul and Diane Lamplugh. This became one of the objectives of a Trust they established in Suzys name, a trust which two of the Lamplughs' friends and neighbours made important contributions. Mary Asprey's son had attended nursery school with Suzy and Mary was anxious to help a friend whose daughter had gone missing. Mary was to play a key part in fundraising for the Trust in the early years and also, with her sister, Janet Newman, established the Trust's initial work on missing people. Taking this lead, Superintendent Nick Carter, who had been closely involved in the hunt for Suzy while in the Metropolitan Police, retired to Bristol and ran a pilot helpline for families from January - September 1989.

The Helpline (1990-92)

Having recognised the need highlighted by Superintendent Carter and inspired by their friends the Lamplughs, Mary and Janet, as obvious champions of the cause, agreed to set up a permanent, national helpline. From a bedroom at the sisters' home in East Sheen, SW London, a start-up service was formed in early 1990. The Freefone number, 0500 700 700, remains the same number used by tens of thousands today. Meanwhile the Suzy Lamplugh Trust moved towards issues surrounding safety in the work place. Initially Mary and Janet and a small team of volunteers simply comforted callers to the helpline. However they soon realised families wanted more than just telephone support. In 1992, having re-mortgaged their houses, Mary and Janet applied to register National Missing Persons Helpline (NMPH) as a charity.

Expansion (1993)

By the time it became a registered charity in April 1993, NMPH needed new offices to provide a complete range of services for relatives, enabling the charity to both find and support. This expansion was greatly helped by founders of the Big Issue, who secured premises and ITN's Sir Trevor McDonald - later to become a Vice Patron - who instigated invaluable publicity. Where minimal funding allowed, new staff and volunteers joined and the information taken from each caller regarding a disappearance became more detailed and more accurate. A department offering Publicity was born. The success of the charity was cemented in its first year by an office visit from Diana, Princess of Wales in October.

Getting the Message Home (1994)

In February 1994 the resources of NMPH were stretched to the limit by the horrific discoveries at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. Calls to the Helpline from relatives of missing people trebled and extra volunteers had to be brought in to answer the phones. New callers reported relatives missing for the first time, even though some had vanished ten years ago or even more. Distressed families already in touch with the Helpline called again, in case their missing relative might figure in the West investigation. The police directed anxious families to NMPH for comfort and support. Gloucestershire Police called too, seeking help on identifying the bodies found at Cromwell Street and elsewhere. Their initial interest was in women reported missing from Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the 1970s and 80s. Some 390 names were supplied including Alison Chambers and Carol Cooper who were later identified as victims. At the same time, details mentioned by Frederick West were passed to NMPH for checking against our database. One result of this was the identification of Juanita Mott another of the victims discovered at Cromwell Street. A positive side effect of the charities role in the investigation was the reunion of 110 non-victim families in less than two months. On the 27th June 1994 the charity took over the Message Home Helpline from the Mothers' Union, allowing adult missing people to pass a message home. In response to NMPH's growing achievements the charity was honored that HRH the Duchess of Gloucester GVCO accepted the role of Patron. HRH continues to attend performances on our behalf and raise morale of staff and volunteers with regular visits.

Recognition (1996-1998)

In 1996 Mary Asprey and Janet Newman were honoured for their services to charity with OBEs. In 1998 both were honoured with the 'UK Women of Europe Award' and in the same year given the European Women of Achievement Humanitarianism Award and The Rotary Foundation's prestigious Paul Harris Fellowships.

Lost from View (2002)

Jointly with the University of York, NMPH produced 'Lost from View' in February 2002. Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, for the first time research used the charity's unique database of all types of missing people to provide information and trends about the missing phenomenon.

Pioneering work (2003-2004)

Further accolades followed in 2003 when Mary and Janet were invited by The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the contribution of Pioneers to the life of the Nation. 2003 also saw the national roll out of the 'Missing from Care' project for local authorities 'looked after children' in September. This work for young people continued in May 2004 when NMPH launched the Runaway Helpline, as a direct response to a recommendation in the 2002 report by The Social Exclusion Unit. This dedicated service offers advice and support to young people away from home or care.

Financial problems (2005-2006)

March 2005 saw the first dent in the history of a charity that has benefited thousands of lives and supported thousands more. Faced with closure after years of inadequate funding and little input from the private sector, the media announced NMPH was to close. Under the direction of the co-Founders, and with the future of the charity hanging in the balance, Sir Norman Wakefield was appointed as advisor and formed a consortium of charitable organisations that offered financial support. After an outpouring of public support the Home Office too announced emergency funding for the charity. The wake-up call to the charity had not come a moment too late. Realising the financial security of the charity was paramount the co-founders handed over the day to day running of NMPH. Mary and Janet no longer work for the charity but their passion for issue of missing people continues. In September 2005, Paul Tuohy joined the charity as Chief Executive. Bringing with him a new direction and professionalism, the charity also reformed its Board of Trustees and started a considerable process of strategic planning.

New Beginnings (2007)

In May 2007 the charity relaunched as ‘Missing People’. This reflected the considerable strategic developments that had been made and the fact that that the charity now provided a range of services rather than a single helpline. Also in May, less than one week after her disappearance, missing three-year-old Madeleine McCann had become headline news around the globe. The charity did all it could to assist the search and continues to do so. On International Missing Children’s Day (25 May) an appeal by the charity was projected onto Marble Arch to highlight Madeleine’s disappearance and the plight of missing children across the UK. In August Missing People launched the first comprehensive online “missing map” in the UK. This was complimented by the launch of ‘Missing People TV’ – our first online channel featuring appeals, news and ways to get involved with Missing People. The charity ramped up its policy work in October and along with other NGOs from the English Coalition for Runaway Children asked the government to ‘stop missing the missing issue’. This led to the government developing a strategy on the protection of young runaways for the first time ever. In 2007 the charity also teamed up with the police to hold their first joint conference on “missing”. Delegates came from across the globe came to Blackpool to debate and learn about the latest developments. In November 2007 Missing People won praise and numerous awards for its new look and more specifically this website – which received more than 40 million hits in its first year. In December the BBC launched ‘Reunited’ - a season of hard hitting programmes about family members seeking to contact missing relatives and the complex reasons people run away.

Finding Missing People and Supporting Families (2008)

In March 2008 hundreds of families of the missing joined together to march through London to highlight the impact of someone going missing on their family, whilst Radiohead supported the charity with the donation of an exclusive one-off remix tape. April saw the first of the award-winning series Missing Live on BBC One. Successes included finding more than 100 people over the four week show. Missing People’s financial position was strengthened by a landmark decision by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to grant the charity £310,000 in June 2008 and by the appointment of five new trustees, which led to a shortlisting at the Third Sector Awards 2008 for most improved Trustee Board. In October 2008 Missing People and Iceland supermarket teamed up to launch milk carton appeals for the missing, following on from the success of a previous initiative with Iceland which had helped to find more than 15 people across millions of cartons. The first new appeal was for Andrew Gosden, a 14-year-old boy last seen at King’s Cross Station. In December 2008 Missing People launched the first report into the experiences of, and impacts on, the families of missing people called ‘Living in Limbo’. This report was launched with media coverage including GMTV, Sky News and The Guardian. Also in December Missing People teamed up with 95.8 Capital FM to launch the Runaway Helpline text service, the first free helpline text service for young people, which was funded by Vodafone Foundation.