This week the mum of missing Benjamin Ross got the news she had been praying for – her son had been found “tired and drained but alive”.
Ben, 26, a trainee barrister from Golborne in Wigan, had been missing in Majorca since July 10, when his mum Felix Robinson lost contact with him.
The pair were reunited at the British Consulate in the city of Palma yesterday (Tuesday) after the 26-year-old was robbed and left with “no money, no phone, and no way of contacting anyone”.
READ MORE: Jay Slater’s ‘likely cause of death’ in Tenerife confirmed after autopsy
Concerns had been raised by Felix in particular, who had said she had received a text from her son that indicated he was not in the right state of mind. But yesterday, the ‘revelieved’ mum was reunited with her son and the family is now focused on getting him “back to full health”.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for all the help and support we’ve received,” Felix said. “Everyone has been truly incredible. We are so relieved to have found him and are now focussed on getting him back to full health and home safe and well.”
Statistically, the positive outcome following Ben being reported missing was not wholly unusual, according to one expert, the Mirror reports. But his disappearance came amid heightened scrutiny of missing Brits abroad following the tragic fate suffered by Jay Slater.
So why was Jay Slater’s disappearance unusual?
Jay Slater – an unusual case
Jay, a teenager from Lancashire, sparked a wide range of speculation online after he vanished from the village of Masca in rural Tenerife. Online theories claimed Jay had been subjected to some kind of criminal activity when he was last reported having texted his friend Lucy Law that he was walking back to where he was staying with friends – a mammoth 11-hour hike in the hot Spanish sun.
Jay told Lucy he had missed the bus, cut his leg, and was “lost in the mountains.” He had stayed the night at an Airbnb with two older British men before his disappearance, fuelling some of the speculation.
On July 16, a Spanish court confirmed that a body later identified as Slater had been found with injuries consistent with a fall, although a coroner has not yet certified the cause of death. It remains unclear why Jay wandered into the area, dangerous and difficult terrain in rural and mountainous Tenerife.
A scenario of criminal involvement is statistically unlikely, according to Charlie Hedges, one of the UK’s leading experts on missing persons cases. He told the Mirror: “The majority of people who are reported missing are just missing in one context or another.”
According to the UK charity Missing People, around 74 per cent of adults reported missing are found within the first 24 hours. This, and the length of time it took to discover what happened to Jay, is what makes his case odd. Only three per cent of people are missing for more than a week and just one per cent missing for more than a month.
“[Maybe] they got lost or they are late home or maybe, in Jay Slater’s case, there is an existential harm,” Mr Hedges explained. “It is less usual for someone to have been abducted or some other criminal activity occur against them. That said, it is important to assess all potential scenarios as to what might have happened.”
Most cases reported in the UK every year fail to hit the headlines, Mr Hedges also pointed out. Jay’s disappearance was one of many compared with the annual figures – around 320,000 incidents are reported every year.
Cops working missing persons cases also have to attempt to assess who is “likely to be at significant risk of harm,” Hedges added. Mr Hedges said police must first “develop a full understanding of the circumstances of the disappearance and the individual who has gone missing to try and assess what the likelihood of risk is”.
Hedges is working with the family of Jack O’Sullivan. The disappearance of Jack, 22 and from Bristol, is also statistically unusual given he has not been seen since leaving a house party in Bristol on March 2.
Jack’s mum Catherine O’Sullivan is frustrated with the police search so far, the BBC reported. “I have such little faith in what has been done,” she said. Avon and Somerset Police said “extensive searches of both land and water using specialist units” had been made and they are following expert advice.
It is a similar complaint made by the Slater family – Jay’s dad Warren went as far as calling on Interpol to intervene when the Spanish authorities called off the search after 14 days.
Later, it was revealed to journalists the police had not stopped searching, but had hoped some of the attention around the case would die down amid the rife speculation and volunteer mountaineers chopping down vegetation with machetes.
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