My sister is missing… I think

[Isshemissing]

To cut a very long story short, My sister hasn’t been around/involved in our family since she left home as a teenager. About 10 years ago. She has a drug/alcohol addiction and likely BPD.

She was in prison recently for 8 months ish - we know this because she decided to write letters back and fourth with our dad. She said she was getting better and wasn’t going to surround herself in the same group once she leaves prison.

The letters stopped coming out of nowhere, even after sending in paper/envelopes/stamps etc. She was due to leave prison a few weeks after this.

Since then, no one has heard from her (not uncommon for most of the last 10 years, but weird considering how much she was talking to us in prison).

She has not posted to social media since before prison, which is very strange.

• Should we report her as missing, even though we have no idea if she is? If so, who do we call?

• How can we find out whether she’s ended up back in prison?

As far as we know, our dad is her next of kin so i would assume if she was in hospital or worse, he would be contacted?

Call police for advice. Do you know any friends of hers you could try to contact? Have you checked social media etc?

Yes, ask the police to do some checks, they can see if she's claiming anything or using a bank account. I don't know if they'd be prepared to do that the first time you ask. Awful not to know though.

Do you think she would have a parole officer? I'm not sure if everyone who leaves prison has one, or just for certain offences. Presumably she would have to be checking in if she is on parole?

I mean, if you phrase it that you would like to know that she's still alive, if that can be verified, they may help. They're not going to look for her.

Yes I would report her missing.

Especially if she has distinctive tattoos or anything like that.

I'd also check the area she'd likely be in or was in police fb pages.

What area was she likely missing in?

I think she may have had to give the prison details of where she would go after release.

I would contact the police for advice.

If she's trying to avoid her previous crowd then she may be lying low on social media, changing area etc. Alternatively, she's already back with them so prepsre for another prison sentence at some point.

I hope you locate her and she's OK.

The Salvation Army has a confidential family tracing service.

See www.salvationarmy.org.uk and look at their ‘Family Tracing’ page.

Good luck and please update if you succeed in finding her (and hopefully fit and well).

I'd check she's not still in prison first.

www.gov.uk/find-prisoner

The Salvation Army is an excellent idea.

I hope you find her safe and sound, OP.

She may be classed as a vulnerable person, given her background. Ask the police if they can do any proof of life checks, at least it may put your mind at rest

You should definitely report her missing. The likelihood (I'm sorry to say) is that she has left prison, gone straight back to her previous ways, and therefore dropped out of contact as before. But even this would be somewhat reassuring to know, if disappointing.

Chances are if the worst had happened you’d know.

there’ll be a record of her fingerprints and nok from prison. So not as if she would be unidentifiable.