How a UK missing persons charity solves cold cases using expert volunteers

Locate International, founded by a retired detective, has one ultimate goal: to investigate every cold case in the UK

Despite international appeals for help, the identity of the young woman killed on a motorway in the early hours of 18 February 1975 remains a mystery. She is known only as the Girl in the Afghan Coat. Her anonymity is not unusual: the UK Missing Persons Unit has a database of 13,000 names, a figure that has risen sharply in recent years.

The devastation of families left behind is lifelong. Misha, whose relative went missing 20 years ago, said it never stopped. “You’re always searching,” he said. “It’s emotionally as well as physically and mentally exhausting – you have to think of new ways to search all the time.”