MISSING PEOPLE

At least Pat and Steve Hall have the answer to one of the three questions that have preyed on their minds for the past 13 years. They now know where their daughter Melanie is – or was – all the time that they were frantically seeking her face in every crowd. The young hospital clerk, last seen in a Bath nightclub on June 9 1996, was in a rubbish bag under a bush by the slip road to exit 14 of the M5.

Thousands of people have driven past her while having map-reading debates or answering "How much longer?" queries from the back seat. The very banality of the scene is shaking. Even more troubling is the question that inevitably follows: how many more bodies of missing people have we glided past without knowing? It could be hundreds, even thousands, for every year at least 200,000 people go missing. The vast majority – 99 per cent – are found within a year, most of them within 48 hours. That leaves 2,000 people each year who never reappear. Sixty per cent of them are thought to be dead. But where are they?