By LAURA WAKELY
MORE than 2500 residents across Melbourne’s North West were reported as missing in the past financial year.
Police statistics reveal 2712 people were missing, accounting for 40 per cent of missing persons across the state.
Hume Inspector Tony Ryan said the numbers were “shocking”.
“We take missing persons very seriously,” Insp Ryan said.
“The heartache they cause to their families and local communities are at times unbearable.”
Insp Ryan said some people simply ran away from home, sometimes from disagreements or even violence at home.
He said police carried out a risk assessment on any person reported missing, because 95 per cent of people are found or come home after a short time.
But he said police would carry out an extensive search immediately if anyone with physical or psychological problems, for example, were reported missing.
Whittlesea Inspector Bob Dykstra said police would only give up searching when they had physically seen the person in a safe and healthy condition.
“We do not forcibly return a person to an unsafe environment,” Insp Dykstra said.
“But we encourage missing persons to make contact with the families, directly or indirectly, and police, to provide reassurance and enable us to close that investigation.”
Brimbank Police are still searching for Veronica Green, who has not been seen since she left for work from her Ballarat Rd home in Ardeer at 11am on Friday 13 February 1976.
Veronica was 37, had red hair and was 165 centimetres tall at the time of her disappearance – she would now be 73 years old.
Stanley Myers has been missing for 50 years, having last been sighted leaving a house in Central Ave in Sunshine on Sunday 14 August 1960.
Stanley was fair with brown hair, a slim build, was originally from Scotland and would now be around 85 years old.
Footscray’s Marie Agostino was last seen at her home on Tuesday 13 March 1984 when she told her family she would be going for an hour-long walk and never returned.
Russell Jenkin was last seen leaving his Werribee home at about 9.15pm on Friday 22 September 2006 in a silver Toyota Yaris.
Russell is 175 centimetres, has a medium build and brown hair.
Police urge anyone with any information about these people to contact their local police station, Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or the National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre on 1800 000 634.
