Retired detective inspector Dave Grimstead, driven by a belief that neither the grieving nor the unidentified should be abandoned, co-founded Locate International in 2020. The organization, powered by volunteers, aims to provide a continuous search for missing persons and identification for nameless deceased individuals, especially in cases where police attention has waned due to resource constraints and shifting priorities.
Grimstead, a former cold-case investigator, observed how new cases often drew attention away from older ones, leaving families in prolonged uncertainty. "The lighthouse turning its beam onto something new meant that another family’s tragedy was largely cast into darkness," he explained.
Locate International has grown to include thousands of volunteers across the UK who work on cases that have long been inactive. These volunteers receive training and resources and gain access to police files through the backing of retired officers. The work, though potentially absorbing for those interested in true crime, is described as repetitive and often thankless, with many leads ultimately proving fruitless.
Cases and Outcomes
Among the cases highlighted is that of George Johnston, a father who disappeared in Norfolk in 1984 while rescuing a drowning father and son. His body was never found. Another case involved Debbie Griggs, a pregnant mother who vanished from Deal, Kent, in 1999. Her husband, Andrew, a suspect due to an affair, was later convicted of her murder after her body was discovered buried in his garden, a breakthrough partly spurred by volunteer advocacy.
An unidentified woman who died in a fall from Wembley Point in London in 2004, having read The Guardian before her death, was initially thought by one contact to be a trafficked individual named Fatima. However, Fatima was later found to be alive.
In another instance, a man found dead in a Kensington mews in 1994, identified only by a scrap of paper with a name, was eventually identified as Vincent Akpiroroh. Closer examination of the paper revealed the name to be a Nigerian surname. Vincent was deaf-mute, which explained why he carried his name. Volunteers also worked on the case of a barefoot woman found dead on the A1(M) near Baldock in 1975, who had spoken with a foreign accent. A couple came forward who had lodged a girl named Odile in 1972, and the team traced someone who knew Odile from Cambridge, indicating she was from Saint-Lo, Normandy.
Grimstead noted that out of approximately ten cases detailed, about half were solved and half remained unresolved, mirroring the ongoing limbo experienced by families of the missing and unidentified.
"Please don’t let other families endure years of silence and uncertainty, as we have," is a plea from families grieving missing relatives. With the efforts of Locate International, there is an increased chance that such pleas may be answered.