Between 2019 and 2020, 1,589 children and 1,673 adults went missing from across Merseyside alone, it has been revealed.
Thankfully, in the vast majority of cases, the missing child or adult was either found or returned unharmed.
But the figures released by the National Crime Agency also include 37 children and 15 adults who were reported missing during the year and had still not been found as of March 31, 2020.
Currently there are 19 missing people from the Merseyside area listed by independent website Missing People.
READ MORE: Man walked out after argument with his girl friend and was never seen again
Those that run the website vow to leave no stone unturned in looking for missing people and say they will 'never stop caring.'
The 19 people currently missing from Merseyside are:
- Mark Garvey, who was 15 when he was last seen at a bus stop outside the Jolly Miller pub in West Derby in 1987. He would now be 49.
- Brian Hesketh, who was aged 34 when he vanished from Gateacre in January, 1994, and would now be aged 61
- Lee Buckle was aged 22 when he was last seen in Merseyside in October, 1994. He would now be 48-years-old.
- Philip Fudge was aged 21 when he disappeared from Liverpool in December, 1995. He would now be aged 46.
- Paul Fahy, aged 33, went missing from Liverpool in 2002. He would now be 52-years-old.
- Kevin Fasting was last seen in Liverpool in November, 2003. He was 49-years-old when he vanished and would now be aged 66.
- Julie Melton was aged 41 when she disappeared from Liverpool in July, 2004 and would now be 57-years-old.
- Lindsay Claro vanished in June, 2008 from Liverpool, aged 36. She would now be 49-years-old
- Helen Montgomery was aged 45 when last seen in Wirral in August, 2008, she would now be aged 57.
- Brendan Taaffe disappeared from Birkenhead in January, 2010. He was aged 39 at the time and would now be 50-years-old.
- Okkes Emre went missing from Waterloo, aged 28, in November, 2011. He would now be 37-years-old.
- Alessandro Severitano, aged 40, has been missing from Liverpool since October, 2014. He would now be aged 46.
- Trevor Farthing, of St Helens, will have been missing for four years on June 21. He was aged 52 when he vanished in 2017.
- Ann Ocampo was aged 42 when she disappeared in August, 2019, from Liverpool.
- Seventeen-year-old Ibrahim Alfadoon went missing from Liverpool in October, 2019.
- Tu The Nguyen, was just 14-years-old when he vanished from Liverpool in February of last year.
- Thinh Ho, aged 17, of Liverpool, has not been seen since April 30, 2020.
- Sixteen-year-old Vuong Duy Vo disappeared from Liverpool on the same day as Thinh Ho - April 30, 2020.
- Carol Mighall, aged 51, went missing from Birkenhead on January 5 of this year.
New data has revealed that out of those 1,589 children and 1,673 adults that went missing from across Merseyside in 2019/20 period alone, many vanished on multiple occasions.
The 1,589 children reported missing were responsible for 5,436 'missing incidents', which is the equivalent of each child vanishing or running away on 3.4 occasions, according to the National Crime Agency.
Among adults, there were a total of 2,057 missing incidents, which equates to 1.2 for each individual.
With a total of 3,262 people going missing in a total of 7,493 occasions.
A breakdown of the missing incidents from this time period shows that seven out of 10 (72.5%) involved are children.
More than half of all missing incidents (54.3%) related to the disappearance of males, while 45.6% were of females and the rest 'unknown.'
People from the White ethnic group made up nine out of 10 missing incidents (92.0%) in Merseyside.
Of the rest, 2.9% were Black, 1.0% Asian, 0.7% Middle Eastern, 0.1% Chinese, Japanese or South Eastern Asian, and 3.3% unknown.
A total of 1,101 missing incidents reported to Merseyside Police involved mental health issues.
The majority of cases do thankfully end with the child or adult being found.
In Merseyside, most children were either returned of their own free will (39.4%), or were found by police (19.8%), while 16.4% were found by family, including foster carers and guardians.
Adults were far more likely to be found by police, with more than a third (36.2%) tracked down by officers, while 31.6% chose to return.
But sadly, not everyone returned home safely and unharmed. Some 77 children and 147 adults suffered some form of harm during their missing ordeal.
Ten children were victims of a sexual offence, 15 self harmed, 40 suffered a physical injury, four suffered emotional harm, and eight were hurt by accident.
Among the adults, 60 self harmed, 54 suffered a physical injury, 21 were hurt by accident, six suffered emotional harm, and six were the victims of a sexual offence.
Even more tragically, there were 13 fatalities among the missing persons lists for 2019/20, all adults who lost their lives.
But the figures also include 37 children and 15 adults who were reported missing during the year and had still not been found as of March 31, 2020.
A spokesperson for Missing People said: "The NCA statistics continue to show that a high number of people are going missing in the UK: someone will be reported missing every 90 seconds.
"Many of those who go missing will be experiencing crisis or harm, including mental health crisis, exploitation, being unsafe or unhappy where they live, and a whole range of other things.
"And while the vast majority of people who go missing do return, many will go missing again because they are unable to access support on return.
"This is particularly the case for missing adults, who will not as standard be offered help when they return.
"At Missing People we think that every missing episode should be recognised as a sign that something isn’t going quite right for that person, and that return from missing should be taken as an opportunity to support them."
For help, advice or support or to pass on information about a missing person, call or text Missing People, confidentially, on 116 000 or email 116000@missingpeople.org.uk. Calls and texts are free.
For further help and information visit the website missingpeople.org.uk.
