Reported Missing: What happened to Mark Smith?

Tonight’s Reported Missing on BBC One (August 12) followed the search for Mark Smith.

The episode started with a call to Cheshire Police from Mark Moran of the Blue Apple Veterans Association, a charity in Warrington.

They reported the charity’s founder, former soldier Mark Smith, as missing following an argument with his wife Denise.

Prior to disappearing, Mark left his desk unusually tidy, leaving behind both his phone and wallet.

Police learned that Mark suffers from PTSD and that he has been behaving increasingly erratically for weeks and found posts on social media saying that he wants to end it all.

A major search operation swung into action while wife Denise was left waiting at home in an agony of uncertainty. She had grown used to living with Mark’s PTSD – which stemmed back to a traumatic tour of duty in Northern Ireland – and which led to them setting up the charity together.

Denise told the cameras she was concerned that Mark may be taking deliberate steps to stop anyone from tracking him down and preventing him from carrying out his threat.

Meanwhile the investigation deepened as police looked into allegations made against Mark by a local Facebook group.

Ultimately Mark was found safe and well in Scotland with a cousin. He returned home a week later and there was no evidence to substantiate the allegations.

He said at the end of the episode of his disappearance: “The pressure was too great. I felt like the relationship with my wife was suffering, my children. I started mistrusting everyone. I felt a failure and I couldn’t cope with it. I couldn’t deal with the shame of failing.

“Everything around me was collapsing.

“I couldn’t even tell you how I got to Scotland. I do remember crying all the way up there. I was having a battle.

“I didn’t want to die but I felt that was the only option.”

Reported Missing airs on BBC One. You can catch up on BBC iPlayer.

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