Tonight’s Reported Missing on BBC One (August 26) followed the search for a man living with schizophrenia.
The latest episode started with a call from 25-year-old Oli who phoned Gloucestershire Police about his father who had missed an appointment with his mental health worker.
The police set out on a search for Michael, who was known to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was understood to have stopped taking his medication.
PC Jade Chitcuti led an initial search of Michael’s house in Cheltenham and the evidence of his paranoia was clear for police to see.
While the police did not believe Michael to be suicidal, they did discover that he was known to hide, which could place him at increased risk if he was outdoors and not found quickly.
Oli spoke about becoming increasingly desperate to find a way of helping Michael and restoring him to the happy, cheerful father he remembered.
As for what happened to Michael, police found him hiding after three days out in the open. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, an indication of how much his mental health battles would cause him to neglect himself in a bid to get away.
Eight weeks later, Michael was reported missing again in what turned out to be the start of a number of increasingly erratic and challenging missing episodes that tested both the police’s resources and ingenuity to the limit.
Ultimately Michael Denon-Ross was found safe and well again, this time in a hotel on the coast of Wales.
After that, Michael started a long-term care plan for his mental health and he has not gone missing again.
“Things are looking better and better,” said his son Oli.
Reported Missing airs on BBC One on Wednesday nights at 9PM.
You can watch episodes online and catch up via the BBC iPlayer.
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