ISLANDERS are being urged to help in the search for a father who vanished 11 days ago in what a detective has described as an ‘unusual’ missing-persons case.
Thomas Frost was last seen at his parents’ house at L’Etacq on the night of Saturday 11 February.
Despite an intensive search focusing within a 750-metre radius of the property and involving numerous agencies including the States and honorary police, Coastguard and Fire and Rescue Service, there has since been no trace of the 51-year-old.
Acting Superintendent Craig Jackson yesterday gave more details about Mr Frost’s last-known movements, and urged Islanders to check sheds, outbuildings and any land they owned in case Mr Frost had sought shelter.
He described how the Islander had appeared ‘happy’ while visiting his parents’ house – but disappeared shortly after they went to bed.
The senior officer also revealed that Mr Frost had previously gone missing, although not recently, and in all instances for a much shorter period of time.
Describing the night of the disappearance, Acting Supt Jackson said: ‘He seemed happy when with his parents.
‘They left him and went to bed and then sometime between 10pm and 1am they believed that he had gone missing. They had a quick search of the area and then they notified us of his disappearance.
‘We got the call just prior to 2am.’
Acting Supt Jackson declined to reveal the possible reasons for Mr Frost’s disappearance but stressed that it was being treated as a missing-persons inquiry and that there was ‘no indication of any third-party involvement’.
He added: ‘We are mainly focused on the area where Thomas was last seen. We are within the search radius of that home address.
‘Until we have cleared those immediate areas we don’t want to speculate on what has actually caused Thomas to go missing.’
He confirmed that the force had received no reports that Mr Frost had been buying food and that despite following up numerous lines of inquiry and receiving several reports of people matching Mr Frost’s description, there had been no confirmed sightings since he left his parents’ house.
‘To have someone missing for this period of time and also have very limited sightings is unusual for the Island, but I am grateful for the support from the public, who keep ringing the investigation team with potential sightings and I continue to urge the public to do that.
‘I would also urge them to search any outbuildings they have, or if they can’t search it themselves to call the investigation team and we’ll search it.’
Although the most intensive search has focused on a small area around Mr Frost’s parents’ house, the operation has covered a much wider section of the Island stretching along St Ouen’s Bay and the north coast as far as Grève de Lecq.
The Fire and Rescue Service RIB has been used to search waterside vegetation at Val de la Mare reservoir, and Acting Supt Jackson said that the body of water, plus others in the area, could be searched again, possibly with divers.
On Saturday night – a week after Mr Frost was last seen – the police stopped 18 motorists in the area, and dozens of missing-persons posters have been put up on buildings around the Island.
Acting Supt Jackson said there were no current plans to stop or scale down the search, adding: ‘While we have got active lines of inquiry the investigation will continue and we will constantly review the search area and we could make a decision to expand it, dependent on lines of inquiry, or reduce it once we are content that we have searched that area thoroughly.’
Mr Frost is described as being 5ft 10in tall, of medium build with greying hair.
It is believed that he was wearing navy jeans, as well as a crimson T-shirt underneath a navy shirt with white buttons.
He may also have been wearing a light-grey hoodie over his shirt and it is thought that he may have been barefoot.
Anyone with information is being asked to phone the States police on 612612 and selecting option 2, then option 4.
