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By Terrain

	Male	Female	Other	Total
Crag / Broken Ground	47	13	1	61
Farmland	267	127	3	397
Moorland / Upland	126	39	5	171
Not Specified	49	22	3	74
Plantation (dense)	87	25	2	114
Urban	230	132	15	378
Water Margin	110	36	4	151
Woodland / Parkland	227	67	2	296
Total:	1143	461	35	1642

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	583	35.5%
Unknown	443	27.0%
Fatality	408	24.8%
Serious Injury	104	6.3%
Minor Injury	104	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
Habitation	333
Habitation	333
Not Found	413
Not Found	413
Open Ground	125
Open Ground	125
Water	175
Water	175

Crag / Broken Ground

	n
Habitation	6
Habitation	6
Not Found	11
Not Found	11
Open Ground	15
Open Ground	15
Water	6
Water	6

Farmland

	n
Habitation	96
Habitation	96
Not Found	79
Not Found	79
Open Ground	32
Open Ground	32
Water	27
Water	27

Moorland / Upland

	n
Habitation	22
Habitation	22
Not Found	30
Not Found	30
Open Ground	40
Open Ground	40
Water	15
Water	15

Not Specified

	n
Habitation	6
Habitation	6
Not Found	47
Not Found	47
Open Ground	4
Open Ground	4
Water	2
Water	2

Plantation (dense)

	n
Habitation	13
Habitation	13
Not Found	30
Not Found	30
Open Ground	2
Open Ground	2
Water	1
Water	1

Urban

	n
Habitation	135
Habitation	135
Not Found	98
Not Found	98
Open Ground	18
Open Ground	18
Water	42
Water	42

Water Margin

	n
Habitation	17
Habitation	17
Not Found	45
Not Found	45
Open Ground	2
Open Ground	2
Water	66
Water	66

Woodland / Parkland

	n
Habitation	38
Habitation	38
Not Found	73
Not Found	73
Open Ground	12
Open Ground	12
Water	16
Water	16

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%	0.8 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.