Reported Missing’s latest episode ended with the tragic discovery after a man went missing for over a year.
Tonight’s episode began on a cold wintery morning in Northwich, Cheshire when Claire woke up to find her 40-year-old partner Michael Price had not come home Saturday evening as planned.
She called his mum, who hadn’t seen him, and they agreed it was totally out of character. A distressed Claire phoned the police to report him missing on the Monday.
The following days saw Cheshire Police launching a major missing from home investigation, starting with contacting friends, family and local hospitals but to no avail.
Initial CCTV searches found nothing while traces on his mobile phone showed it was last used on the Saturday morning of his disappearance.
A helicopter search over the area found no obvious signs of Michael, but an eye witness phoned the police to say they had seen him on Saturday.
The witness provided police with their first big clue, as it was revealed Michael had been spotted with medication for his alcoholism in a nearby open wooded area.
However the trail from that sighting went cold and the case stalled for months with no sign of Michael for over 10 months.
In a review of the case, experts were brought in – including cadaver dogs – in a bid to find any trace.
After weeks of scouring, no evidence was found of Michael dead or alive. The search widened to a nearby major river, with specialist teams using sonar to scan the riverbed but still nothing was found.
Tragically, almost a year after he went missing, a body was discovered by chance deep in a ditch between the wooded area and a major A-road.
A post mortem showed no signs of foul play, with officers concluding he had most likely simply stumbled and fallen down the embankment.
Reported Missing airs on BBC One. You can catch up on BBC iPlayer.
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