University of Portsmouth aids launch of Missing Persons Information Hub to help find missing people

The Missing Persons Information Hub (MPIH) is an extensive new website aimed at anyone involved in locating missing people, including professionals and missing people and their loved ones.

To aid the project, the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for the Study of Missing Persons has transferred its entire research archive into the MPIH library.

Dr Karen Shalev Greene, the director of the university’s missing persons centre, said: ‘This new hub will be a crucial single point of reference for people looking for information or who want to understand what resources are available about all aspects of missing persons.

‘It is also important as it allows us to promote current and new research in this area and help disseminate this information to practitioners and the public.’

Praising the new resource was Val Nettle, whose son, Damien, went missing in 1996 and has never been found.

She said: ‘When your child is missing you are lost in time and space. The world continues its momentum, revolving around you whilst you are rooted to that spot in time.

‘A central hub of information on missing issues was a vision that made so much sense to me. With dogged determination we looked at our options which fell into place as the idea was embraced by all parties with an interest in the missing issue.’

According to charity Missing People, there are more than 5,000 individuals from the UK who have been missing for more than a year.