Any person who is thought to have disappeared deliberately. Find Out More

By Terrain

	Male	Female	Other	Total
Crag / Broken Ground	44	11	1	56
Farmland	258	123	3	384
Moorland / Upland	124	37	5	166
Not Specified	44	20	3	67
Plantation (dense)	84	25	2	111
Urban	218	126	15	360
Water Margin	108	36	4	149
Woodland / Parkland	210	62	2	274
Total:	1090	440	35	1567

The four characteristics shown in table 16 come from an analysis of the text fields of reports submitted via the data collection system. These were the characteristics of the missing person that were most frequently mentioned. They are not mutually exclusive, so for example a missing person could have been reported as having threatened to commit suicide as well as having a history of previous threats.

All this is dependent entirely on what the individual doing the reporting felt was worth mentioning. This should be borne in mind when considering the conclusions that we have drawn about the behaviour of missing despondents with these characteristics. It is worth noting, however, that 69% of the reports submitted for missing despondents included a reference to at least one of them, which leads us to suspect that where a characteristic was present then it was highly likely to have been reported.

By Outcome

	n	%
None	561	35.8%
Unknown	417	26.6%
Fatality	391	25.0%
Serious Injury	100	6.4%
Minor Injury	98	6.3%

Despondents were significantly different from all the other categories in the study. Overall, significantly fewer despondents were found unhurt, and significantly more were either found injured or not found at all. The percentages varied with the terrain and, in the case of farmland, by gender. The results for plantations and woodland were similar, and were combined for ease of reporting

By Location Found

All Terrains

	n
Not Found	398
Not Found	398
Open Ground	114
Travel Aid	213
Trees	290
Trees	290
Trees	290
Water	169

Crag / Broken Ground

	n
Not Found	11
Not Found	11
Open Ground	12
Travel Aid	7
Trees	13
Trees	13
Trees	13
Water	5

Farmland

	n
Not Found	78
Not Found	78
Open Ground	31
Travel Aid	75
Trees	55
Trees	55
Trees	55
Water	27

Moorland / Upland

	n
Not Found	30
Not Found	30
Open Ground	36
Travel Aid	30
Trees	24
Trees	24
Trees	24
Water	14

Not Specified

	n
Not Found	44
Not Found	44
Open Ground	4
Travel Aid	7
Trees	4
Trees	4
Trees	4
Water	1

Plantation (dense)

	n
Not Found	30
Not Found	30
Open Ground	2
Travel Aid	9
Trees	56
Trees	56
Trees	56
Water	1

Urban

	n
Not Found	91
Not Found	91
Open Ground	17
Travel Aid	46
Trees	23
Trees	23
Trees	23
Water	42

Water Margin

	n
Not Found	45
Not Found	45
Open Ground	2
Travel Aid	6
Trees	7
Trees	7
Trees	7
Water	64

Woodland / Parkland

	n
Not Found	69
Not Found	69
Open Ground	10
Travel Aid	33
Trees	108
Trees	108
Trees	108
Water	15

Significant differences were found between the different types of terrain, and there was a gender difference in farmland. As before, incidents in plantations and woodland have been combined.

The following additional information was provided with regard to four incidents for which the location was reported as ‘open ground’: at a high vantage point overlooking the valley, close to a footpath, in a quarry, in the hospital grounds.

Significant locations

In many of the reports submitted to the system (15% of female despondents and 14% of male despondents) there are references to the missing person being found in a location that is significant to them in some way, either because it is a local beauty spot or viewpoint, or they have memories associated with the place (‘… went there regularly with the family …’) or they often visited it (‘… on the route that he used to take the dog for a walk …’).

Significant locations are linked in particular to male fatalities. There is no significant difference between the likelihood of a fatality when the indication is that a missing female despondent is in a location of this sort compared with any other location.

If there are strong indicators to suggest that a missing male has headed for such a location then it is highly likely that they will be found dead; 62% of missing male
despondents found in these places are found dead, compared with 29% who are found in other locations. These are significantly different. If the missing male despondent has not threatened suicide then the fatality rate increases to 70% if they are found in a location of this kind. Again, this is a statistically significant result.

Distance From IPP (Km)

osmap

All Distances

10%	0 Km
20%	0 Km
30%	0 Km
40%	0 Km
50%	0.4 Km
60%	0.87 Km
70%	1 Km
80%	2 Km
90%	6 Km
100%	300 Km

The distances travelled by despondents were significantly different to the distances travelled by all the other categories in that a greater proportion of depondents was found nearer to the IPP (36% of despondents were found within 0.5 km of the IPP compared to 25% of the other categories); terrain and gender made no significant difference to the distances despondents travelled.