Of the 170,000 people who go missing in the UK each year, some cases remain etched in our minds, while others fade quickly from public attention. It’s as if they were never known at all.

Their absence continues to cast a long shadow over their families and friends, leaving them with unanswered questions and enduring pain. For each missing person, there are unanswered questions which continue to torment the minds of those who loved and miss them.

The Missing Persons charity currently has 21 people from the East Midlands on their long-term missing persons list and still hope they can be found.

Their families also still remain dedicated to finding them despite their lives being irrevocably altered by these disappearances.

To help keep them at the forefront of our minds, we’ll be highlighting some of the cases and making appeals for information about their wearabouts in the hope someone out there knows something about their current circumstances or maybe they’ve been spotted in a neighbourhood or during a shopping trip to town.

Anyone who has information or potential sightings on the whereabouts of the individuals is encouraged to contact the Missing People charity. You can call or text them for free on 116000, and their website is available here.

Brian Watson

Brian Watson was 52 years old when he walked out of a psychiatric ward at the former Derby City General Hospital – now known as Royal Derby Hospital – back in August 2004.

Mr Watson was being treated for depression at the unit as an outpatient following a double hernia operation.

“Brian was concerned his hernia wasn’t healing properly. It played on his mind and that was when he started to go downhill,” his wife Sue told the BBC back in 2018.

“Brian thought he might go in for a day or two and be cured – but that wasn’t the case and I don’t think that he liked it.”

Just before his hospital stay the couple from Heanor went on holiday to Eastbourne, however, they had only been there for two days when Brian said he wanted to return home.

Their son, Robert, collected the pair and it was then Brian decided to go to the psychiatric ward of the hospital.

Wife Sue said one of the reasons he hated his hospital stay was due to his love of the outdoors.

“Brian liked to be outside” she said.

“He travelled the country to fish but particularly the Lincolnshire coast, including Skegness and the nearby village of Thorpe St Peter.

“He loved fishing and we like to think that he is somewhere along the riverbank, fishing merrily away,”

“He could live quite roughly. He would go fishing in all weathers; nothing would stop him from going.”

The family said they would like to know he is safe and hoped “one day he will come back” to their home the couple bought 51 years ago.

Mrs Watson said at the time: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to come home but just let us know that you’re alright.

“If you do want to come home then that’s fine too.

“We live in hope that he will come through the door… he will know where we are.”

In the years since Brian went missing, people have contacted police with sightings but none of these have been confirmed as him.”

The last sighting was in Lincolnshire back in 2007.

Brian is described as 5ft 11ins tall with blue eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he had short, wavy hair which was greying.

He has no tattoos but does have a double hernia scar on his stomach. He would generally wear black or blue clothing.

Anyone with information about Mr Watson should call police on 101. You can also contact the charity Missing People by ringing or texting 116 000.