Missing for a year '“ can you help find our Shane?
These are the emotional words of a mother desperate to hold her missing son in her arms once more.
Tracey Graham’s 26-year-old son Shane disappeared from his Ansdell home exactly one year ago today. Around £300 rent money had been left in his flat, along with his wallet. Shane was never seen or heard from again.
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Hide AdTracey, 54, said: “I have dreams about him telling me ‘Mum, come and find me’.
“People say the grief gets better with time, but it gets worse. It gets into your body and blood like a virus.
“I think about him every day. Every day I wake up wondering if this will be the day they find my son’s bones.
“I couldn’t live with losing him. Knowing that I wasn’t there to hold his hand when he died.”
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Hide AdShane, who is described by his family as a sensitive and compassionate young man, worked as a landscaper for an artificial grass company.
He is described as white, with light-brown cropped hair and blue eyes. He has links to Tamworth in Staffordshire, where his mum still lives today.
His family and friends - including dad Ron, 57, sister Carissa, 31, and close friend David ‘Macca’ Macathrey - have not given up hope of finding him alive.
Tracey said: “If he’s out there and he’s made a life for himself somewhere else that’s fine, if he just tells the police that he’s OK we can live with that.
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Hide Ad“My biggest fear is that he has been murdered, or that he’s been kidnapped and kept somewhere, or that he’s had a breakdown and doesn’t know who he is any more.
“He hasn’t been in touch with any of his family. Nobody at all has heard from him. It’s like he’s vanished off the face of the Earth.”
Shane has suffered from mental health problems and depression from the age of 18, which he allegedly commented on shortly before he vanished.
Tracey said: “He was greatly affected by starving children in different countries and homeless people living on the streets. He was very compassionate.”
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Hide AdHowever, she said he seemed much happier in the months leading up to his disappearance.
“He told me ‘Mum, I’m happier here than I’ve been in a long time’. He was always saying how great it was and that I needed to come and live there,” she said.
She added that Shane had asked her to come and live with him two months before he disappeared, but she declined as he was living in a small, one-bedroom flat at the time.
She said: “Now I feel so guilty because what if things were more serious than I thought?
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Hide Ad“I just want him to know that we’re satisfied as long as he’s happy and well. We’re begging for him to come forward and say he’s OK because we’re dying without him.
“We’ll love him forever.”
Tracey, along with friends and family, will be handing out missing posters in Lytham this weekend in the hope of finding someone who can tell her what happened to her son.
A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “We have a dedicated team of detectives continuing to work on this investigation. We have conducted a number of enquiries including visiting the Staffordshire area as part of our search to find Shane.”
Det Chief Insp Jon Holmes said: “We are continuing to appeal for the public’s help in finding Shane.
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Hide Ad“He has been missing for around a year now and I would ask anyone with any information about where Shane is or what has happened to him to contact us as a matter of urgency.
“I would also appeal to Shane directly to make contact with ourselves if he sees this article.
“Any contact with ourselves would be treated confidentially, however, we could notify your family that you are safe and well.”
Do you know where Shane could be? Contact the police on 101 or ring the incident room directly on (01253) 607263 quoting log reference 1507 of May 9, 2016. Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.