Podimo and What's The Story Sounds return with new series of "The Missing," launching weekly from Monday 12th June
The podcast that asks listeners to help in the search for missing people, hosted by Pandora Sykes
If a loved one went missing… Would you ever give up hope?
Brought to listeners in association with charities Locate International and Missing People
"A well-researched and ethically sound addition to the true crime genre." - The Guardian "Pandora Sykes’ new podcast is an unexpected – but gripping – listen." - Stylist
On Monday 12th June, The Missing hosted by Pandora Sykes returns for a brand-new series.
Around 170,000 people are reported missing every year in the UK. That's one disappearance every 90 seconds – with many more unreported. While the majority are found safe and well, there are families left never knowing where their loved ones are.
Each episode of The Missing tells the story of a long-term missing person who has never been traced. With original interviews with family and friends, Pandora guides listeners through each person's story and the events leading up to their disappearance.
She asks the questions that need to be answered: Where did they go? What happened to them? Does anyone listening have any information?
The Missing asks listeners to become part of the search. Every single case receives a brand-new investigation from the experts at Locate International which listeners are invited to offer their own tips and ideas to help. Since the series began, the charity has received dozens of new leads which have been processed and interrogated, and more than 200 supporters of The Missing have become volunteers at Locate International.
With listeners' help, there is a chance these cases could be solved.
Throughout series five, we hear from several families including those of:
38-year-old Jean Tighe, from Ireland, who vanished after leaving her hostel in Portugal in July 2020
16-year-old Kevin Hicks who walked out his Croydon home to buy some eggs in 1986 and never came back
23-year-old Steven Clark who disappeared during a family walk in Saltburn, North Yorkshire in 1992
See full list of cases below.
The Missing has twice been shortlisted for ‘Best True Crime’ at the British Podcast Awards, and has been nominated for Outstanding Episodic Series at the True Crime Awards 2023 later this month.
The Missing is available weekly on all major podcast platforms from Monday 12th June 2023.
If you have information on any of the cases covered in the podcast, please visit www.themissingpodcast.org
Images in episode order below: from top left to right, bottom left to right.
Series five of The Missing covers the following cases:
1. Steven Clark
In September 2020, Steven Clark's parents were taken into custody under suspicion of killing their own son. He had vanished during a walk in the seaside village of Saltburn, North Yorkshire almost two decades earlier when he was 23 years old. Since ruled out as suspects, his parents and sister continue the search for Steven.
2. Carmel Fenech
When 16-year-old Carmel Fenech went missing in London in the summer of 1998, her mother Deirdre didn’t panic at first. Carmel, from Crawley, had a well-documented drug problem that had seen her go AWOL before. But this time Camel never came home. She was last sighted at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court in South London with an older, unknown man. Decades later and her mother is no closer to the truth.
3. James Nutley
In 2004, the Nutley family received a phone call to say their 25-year-old son James had failed to return to his hotel after the first night of a golfing trip in Tenby. His mother, Catherine, immediately drove the hundred-odd miles from Wales. It's a drive she and her husband Jeff make twice a year to this day: a pilgrimage they have no intention of stopping until they find out the truth about what happened to James that night nearly 20 years ago.
4. Jean Tighe
Jean, from county Cavan in Ireland, walked out of her hostel in Portugal on July 13th 2020. She was spotted leaving with a Brazilian man, then vanished without a trace. The 38-year-old's sister, Leona, has been trying to locate Jean in a foreign country with an uncooperative police force ever since. Desperate for answers and support, Leona speaks to The Missing about what she knows so far.
5. Sandra Grant
A vulnerable person, Sandra Grant had struggled with alcohol addiction and mental health problems over the years. The 48-year-old was last seen leaving a flat in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex on 14th November 2003. Her three daughters, Carrie, Michaela and Lauren, have tried to piece together her movements and bring their mother home... But have never heard from her since.
6. Simon Hodgson-Greaves
An avid birdwatcher, Simon travelled to Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire coast, the UK's largest mainland seabird colony. At 48 years old, the last few years had brought a breakdown in Simon's marriage and a recent bipolar diagnosis. Over 5,000 miles away in Dubai, his sister Rachel received a phone call telling her Simon's beloved campervan had been abandoned and that her brother was, and still is, nowhere to be found.
7. Kevin Hicks
On a cold spring night in Croydon, 1986, 16-year-old Kevin Hicks walked out his front door. He had nothing but a pound in his pocket and headed in the direction of the local shop to buy some eggs. He never came back. Over 35 years later, his younger sister Alex is still waiting for Kevin to come home.
8. James Miller
On the night of December 22nd 2020, James walked out of his family home, never to return. A 37-year-old mechanic, James was already wrestling with depression and the break up of his marriage… Did he reach the end of his tether after spending the better part of a year unable to meet his friends in the pub, or watch his beloved Warrington Wolves in action, due to COVID-19 lockdown? It's a question his sister, Emma, desperately needs answered…
9. Sandra Collins
In a quiet seaside village like Killala, on the west coast of Ireland, the disappearance of one person can upend an entire community. That’s what happened when 28-year-old Sandra Collins left her home on a wet December night in the year 2000. For her brother, Patrick, her disappearance has cast a long, dark shadow over the region and has haunted the Collins family ever since.
10. Lisa Pour
Most long-term missing person cases lay dormant for years at a time. But for Lauren Saffery, whose 40-year-old mother Lisa Pour had disappeared, everything changed when an anonymous phone call was made to the Metropolitan police. The mysterious voice at the end of the line claimed to have information vital to the case of Lisa who was last seen in Willesden Green, north west London, in January 2013.
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Notes To Editors
About Podimo
Podimo is a premium audio entertainment subscription service that offers original and exclusive ad-free podcasts, audiobooks, plus podcasts from around the world via RSS feeds. As a global production studio, Podimo creates original content that can travel and amplifies the voices of creators from around the world. Previous Podimo UK productions include “The Missing” with Pandora Sykes, “You Don’t Know Me,” with Chloe Combi, and “Letters From A Killer” with Sky Studios’ Transistor Films. The app is currently available in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, and across Latin America, and is expanding to more countries soon.
About What's The Story Sounds
What’s The Story Sounds was born in 2019 with the mission of making podcasts that get under the skin of the story. Part owned by the Banijay Group, WTS’ heartland is compelling, thrilling, thought-provoking and insightful content, across always-on and mini-series, and with the aim of generating IP for multi-platform adaptation. We gravitate towards amazing factual stories of human experience: the exceptional and the extraordinary, wrapped up in unrivalled production quality, and boasting unique access. WTS produce award-winning and consistently charting content for a range of global clients, including BBC Sounds, Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible.This includes number 1 true crime series Body of Proof for Audible, Con Juan and Faceless for NBC. WTS produce The Footballer’s Football Podcast for BBC Sounds, with exclusive access to premier league players Callum Wilson and Michail Antonio. WTS was the first company to win audio-access to the UK’s leading missing persons organisation, which resulted in award-nominated The Missing with Pandora Sykes.
About Locate International
Locate International is the largest entirely volunteer led UK charity providing specialist services in long-term missing and unidentified people investigations. There are over 11,000 people in the UK missing for more than a year and nearly 1,000 who remain unidentified after death. Our mission is to ensure that all that can be done is done in every case.
About Missing People
Missing People is the only UK charity that provides specialist support to people who are missing or at risk of missing, and the families and friends left behind. Every year, 170,000 people in the UK are reported missing, the equivalent of one every 90 seconds. Our free, confidential helpline is available by phone, text and email to support missing children and adults, and their loved ones. Our mission is to be a lifeline to every missing person, and every family member and friend effected by missing.
About Pandora Sykes
Pandora Sykes is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A former editor at The Sunday Times Style magazine, she has written for publications including The Guardian, Vogue, House & Garden, The Cut, Elle, Grazia, GQ and The Evening Standard and is the author of the best-selling essay collection, How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? which came out in 2020 and editor of the anthology, What Writers Read: 35 Writers On Their Favourite Book, which came out in 2022, with all proceeds going to The National Literacy Trust. She also writes a bi-monthly newsletter for Substack, called Books + Bits.
The co-creator and co-host of the cult weekly podcast, The High Low, Pandora is also the creator and producer of Doing It Right, a podcast about modern life’s myths, anxieties and trends and Book Chat with Bobby and Pandora, which she co-hosts with Bobby Palmer. She is also and the host of The Missing, a podcast about long-term missing people, which was nominated for a British podcast award. She has also written and hosted two No.1 audio docu-series for BBC Radio 4: Pieces of Britney named one of the top podcasts of 2021 by The Times, The Guardian, Apple and Medium; and Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV, which she co-conceived and co-hosted with Sirin Kale and was also the executive producer on.