Charity offers support as hunt continues for missing Colchester man

Missing - Anthony Stammers Missing - Anthony Stammers

A MISSING person’s charity told of the trauma the family of Anthony Stammers will be experiencing, two weeks after his disappearance.

Helen Morrell, family support manager for website missingpeople.org.uk, said it had been in contact with Ant’s relatives to offer support. His image and description are also on its site.

Ant, 27, of Mile End Road, Colchester, was last seen by mum, Julie, on Sunday, May 27, when he left the family home and said he was going to meet friends.

Police are still searching in Colchester.

Mrs Morrell said: “His family are facing the challenge where they are having to establish a new relationship with the police and the media. Having to give interviews is frightening in itself.

“They think they should be doing it, but are going into it with a heavy heart because they don’t want to be in this situation.

“It can also be hard to hear police aren’t out searching all the time.

“In all cases, where somebody isn’t found, there will come a stage when the police say they haven’t any leads to follow up.”

Mrs Morrell said families of a missing person also started to experience “ambiguous loss”.

She said: “This is used to describe that feeling families have where not only they don’t know what’s happening, and have all sorts of questions, but are wondering how long will they be in this situation.

“That is very hard, because you wake up every day, wondering if it is going to be like that again.

“That continuation, and not knowing answers to questions, is very frustrating.”

Anyone with information about Ant can call missing people.org.uk on 116000.

Comments(4)

Sdapeze says...
5:36pm Fri 15 Jun 12

Didn't this lad say he was going to London? Why is there such a fuss about a grown man going missing, having said he was going to London to see some friends. Presumably he has had a row at home and wants to get away. He isn't the first and won't be the last.

pingu says...
8:32am Sat 16 Jun 12

Well sdapeze lets hope one of your family memebers goes missing then we will see who gives one. This man lost his grandad and was extremly upset. Suffering and like a lot of men prob didnt want to admit that he was finding ithard. Lets hope they find him safe

ShallowRemarks says...
3:36pm Sun 17 Jun 12

pingu wrote:
Well sdapeze lets hope one of your family memebers goes missing then we will see who gives one. This man lost his grandad and was extremly upset. Suffering and like a lot of men prob didnt want to admit that he was finding ithard. Lets hope they find him safe
Sdapeze is probably praying one of his (guessing it's a he), family members will go missing, not everyone is a namby pamby.

romantic says...
12:58pm Mon 18 Jun 12

Sdapeze wrote:
Didn't this lad say he was going to London? Why is there such a fuss about a grown man going missing, having said he was going to London to see some friends. Presumably he has had a row at home and wants to get away. He isn't the first and won't be the last.
sdapeze, you may well be right. When I was 18 or 19, I´d disappear for days and weeks at a time, ending up in France or Germany until I ran out of money. Long before e-mail or mobiles, the only way to contact was sticking coins in a phone-box. So didn´t even think of phoning home.

BUT now we are in different times, and stay more in contact with the umbilical cord of home via Facebook, e-mails, texting etc. If he would normally be in contact and has not been in any sort of contact with friends or family, I guess it would be concerning. If he is OK, it would be good if he just called and said something.

Plenty of missing people do turn up in the end, and sometimes they just wanted to escape what they saw as an impossible life - but it is quite self-centred in a way to do that and literally not say a word.

The police cannot dedicate resources to an infinite search without any clues. Sad though it is, this is just one of hundreds who go missing each week around the country. Let´s hope, wherever he is, he gets wind of the fact that there are people who care and just want to know he is alive.

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree