Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. This is day two of
twelve days of missing person cases throughout December. Today we're going to be discussing
the disappearance of John Dobson in nineteen eighty six. I originally covered this case
not long ago on Patreon as a bonus episode. However, I believe it's
the perfect case for our twelve day series, so I wanted to include it.
This is a case with quite limited information, but it's so crucial that
all of these cases are treated equally. And while John's disappearance was featured on
Crime Watch, there hasn't been much movement on the case. His parents were
featured on the show and it's clear the pain that they were feeling. This
episode is about a missing person, however, does have some mention of suicide
and sexual abuse of miners. However, this is never in graphic detail.
Listener discretion is always advised. The University of Lancaster was established in nineteen sixty
four and is based around a campus named Bailrig which is located on a three
hundred and sixty acre site which was donated by Lancaster City Council. Is a
campus which incorporates teaching areas as well as social and residential areas all in one
campus. It is made up of nine different colleges, which during the present
period around thirteen thousand students are attending. It's a popular university and destination given
its location in and very close to the city of Lancaster. Lancaster, which
is situated in Lancashire, is a historic city with lots of popular time tourist
destinations such as the Roman for and Lancaster Cathedral. In addition to this,
it has all of the modern amenities of a British city and therefore makes a
good compromise for many students choosing to study there. In nineteen eighty six,
the university had already been established for over twenty years and many students went to
study at Lancaster for many different undergraduate and postgraduate courses. One of these students
was twenty eight year old postgraduate student John Dobson. John loved education, and
his mum Jean and his dad Richard described him as a perpetual student. He
had always had a love of learning and his parents had always supported him in
his studies. They later explained that John was a very much wanted child,
given that the two of them had been married for a long time and didn't
think that they were able to have children when they discovered that they were having
John. While he was an only child, he was loved and supported always.
When John was eighteen years old, he decided to move away from his
home in Preston, a city in Lancashire, and traveled to the University of
Sussex to study in the Department of European Studies. He had a love of
other countries and cultures and wanted to know more. As part of his undergraduate
degree at the University of Sussex, John also completed a year abroad. He
went to study at the Sarbonne University in Paris in France. This was an
exciting opportunity for John, who soaked in all of the history of the around
eight hundred year old university and of the city itself. It was an amazing
chance for John, as Sarbonne is one of the most sought after universities to
study at in France, with Mariciuri choosing to teach there in eighteen ninety one.
Um Jean later said that John became fluent in French and he was very
bright and talented, something which she admired in him. After he returned to
the UK, he continued to study and traveled to the University of York,
before later heading back home to Preston to live with his mom and dad.
It was at this point that John decided to pursue a master's degree in modern
social history at the University of Lancaster. It was clear that John had decided
to pursue a career in education and was dedicated to his studies. This is
what he was doing in the winter of nineteen eighty six, while still living
at home with his parents. On the first of December nineteen eighty six,
John traveled to University in Lancaster from his home using the notice board at the
UNI, he'd made an arrangement with another student called Rod Carter. Rod had
his own car and he lived not far from John in Preston. He was
a second year undergraduate student, and they made an arrangement that Rod would give
John a lift to campus if John contributed towards the cost of petrol. This
worked out as a good arrangement for the pair of them and enabled John to
get to university easily. On this Monday, the first of December, Rod
picked John up as usual and they traveled to the campus. Rod later said
this was a normal journey and while John seemed a little quieter than usual,
nothing seemed out of the ordinary that morning. Rod later told the Crime Watch
program that he then left John and said that this was the last time that
he ever saw him. It's known that around mid morning, close to midday,
John went to see his lecturer, Professor Eric Evans. Eric Evans would
later explain that he had known John for a couple of months since he enrolled
on the master's course which he directed. That day, John had come to
see him about some work that he was doing in relation to the course,
and seeing that John perhaps wanted a longer conversation than the professor had time for
in that moment, he suggested to him that he returned that afternoon so they
could have a longer chap. The professor later stated that it was at this
point that John's demeanor changed a little and he became quite noncommittal about being able
to return later that afternoon. The professor said that he told him he hoped
that he could come back to speak to him later. Professor Eric Evans,
however, did not see him later that day and possibly just believed he didn't
bother coming back. This, however, was not the case. No one
saw him later on the afternoon, and nobody has seen him since. After
this meeting with the professor, John Dobson simply appeared to vanish into thin air.
When John didn't return to his home that day, and then he didn't
return within the next few days, his parents were beside themselves. John was
twenty eight years old at the time that he disappeared, and so was an
adult who was entitled to do whatever it was that he wanted. His parents
knew, though, that this was so out of character for him, and
his dedication to his studies made them believe he wouldn't just abandon these plans or
his master's degree. They couldn't understand what had happened to him. There was
another thing that made his parents believe that he had not just left to live
another life. He had left behind all of his beloved books, which lined
the walls of the office in their home. These were John's most prized possessions
and not something that he would have just left behind. This suggested to them
that whatever had happened, John had not been tending to leave suddenly. He
also didn't have his own transper or. During the crime Watch episode about John's
disappearance, which aired in nineteen ninety four, his parents showed this office and
stated that they had left it exactly how he had left it that day in
the hope that John would return. Richard and Jean were quite clear that they
hoped that John would return, as there was no reason why he had decided
to leave his life behind. Police could find no evidence that John was in
any way involved with drugs or any financial debt that would have been affecting his
life. They also could not find any sexual motive for his disappearance, such
as an impending scandal. With all of these things ruled out, there wasn't
a lot to go on, and after days and then weeks of John not
returning, his parents tried to cling on to hope. But this must have
been extremely difficult given the lack of information and the not knowing about where their
son had gone. It was seven nearly eight years later, when crime Watch
produced a segment about John's disappearance and the wider public heard about his case.
The segment came about after a feature on the National Missing Person's Helpline. This
helpline had been set up in the late nineteen eighties by two police officers who
were conscious that people were going missing and were being labeled as runaways when foul
play may have been a contributing factor to their disappearance. It was noticeable that
this was being featured in nineteen ninety four when the horrific crimes of Fred and
Rose West were coming to light. Many of their victims in Gloucester were missing
people and little had been done by the police to try and find them or
try and figure out what had happened. This was very much reliant on their
lifestyle and whether it was believed that they could have just made a new life
for themselves. John's case and John's parents were spoken to for this segment,
given that his disappearance had been so unexpected and was not seen as normal behavior
for him. This therefore made it one of those cases that raised a lot
of questions. Chris Drey, who helped to set up the helpline, discussed
its importance and its use to families of missing people. Unfortunately, just a
year later, Chris Drey would be known for a series of scandals that would
damage his credibility. In nineteen ninety five, he was sacked from his position
at the charity, and it's reported by the Mirror newspaper that he descended into
a life of drugs and crime. Radio two DJ Paul Gambuccini gave him a
job as his PA. However, this did not last long, as he
reportedly racked up nearly twelve thousand pounds in bills on Gambuccini's credit card. This,
however, was not the end of Drey's story, as in two thousand
and five, you were sent to prison for six and a half years for
having indecent images on his computer and for grooming two schoolboys for sex after meeting
them in online chat rooms. One of the boys was fifteen and the other
was fourteen. The judge at the trial stated, you have done some good
things in your life, but now you've been sentenced for some very bad things.
This conclusion to Christrey's story came a long way from the charity in which
he helped to set up, and cause many people to be appalled. Given
that the original aim for the charity was to help young runaways and vulnerable people.
This could have ruined all of the progress made into documenting missing persons cases,
but thankfully the charity Missing People is available now to support families as well
as the UK Missing Persons Unit. Both can and do support families to live
without their loved ones and try to find them. This story is tangent to
John's, however, I believe it's important as this Crime Watch segment is one
of the only things we have to go on in John's disappearance, and Chris
Dray was a large part of that. It's clear that despite the lack of
publicity since John's disappearance, there are some people who still are looking for him,
and there must be some DNA on file to rule out any unidentified people
who may have some similarities to him. On the twenty sixth of July nineteen
ninety one, a body was recovered hanging from a tree about one hundred yards
from the Ouze Valley Railway viaduct and located on the railway embankment. The Ouze
Valley is located in West Sussex, and it was thought that the man could
have been aged between nineteen and twenty five. He was white, European and
was around five feet ten inches tall with a medium build. He had dark
curly color length hair and had a large veruka on the instep of his left
but he was found wearing a blue T shirt, a gray shirt with a
mauve colored polo neck on the top. He was also wearing a red and
blue waterproof coat and blue jeans, along with a denim jacket, brown suede
walking boots and white ankle socks. He had a belt on and this had
been used to hang himself from the tree. This was such a tragic discovery
and it was hoped that his belongings may help to identify him. He had
a pair of what have been described as John Lennon's style glasses with tinted photochromatic
lenses in a morell make frame, as well as carrying a brown leather wallet.
He had two batteries with him, a British tourist map of London and
a Woolwich Building Society pen. He also had a child's tight blue rucksack with
Mickey and Minnie Disney motif on it, as well as twenty Cool brand cigarettes,
an hour personal stereo and two Beverly Craven cassette tapes. The UK Missing
Person's Unit had done their best to try and identify the man and had tried
to match his description to other people they knew about that were missing. One
of these people that they checked against was John Dobson. Despite being slightly older
than the age they suspected and not looking exactly like the man, every lead
needed to be checked, but unfortunately this was found not to be John Dobson,
and the listing on the UK Missing Person's database states he is known not
to be him. This man is also very sadly still unidentified, and other
clues that they had about him was that a witness said he had seen this
man speaking French, and his dental work suggested that he may well have been
French. Interestingly, it's known that John spoke fluent French and lived there for
a year. This may also have been why it was thought it could be
him. I will link this man's profile in the show notes for anyone to
look at. John Dobson has still not been found and there is little evidence
for what happened. His parents always believed that he would not have just left
his life, and he did not take anything with him to suggest this,
only the things he needed for university that day. Where did he go Why
did he not go back and speak to his professor later on? Why did
he sound noncommittal about this meeting? Did he have other plans? It's so
unclear. And if he did leave the campus, how did he get where
he was going? He would have had to have used public transport. Surely
someone saw him that day. We never know what's going through someone's head and
the struggles that they're going through. But no one saw any signs of anything
wrong in John. And this is the sad part. Did he meet with
foul play, did he leave his life behind? Did he harm himself?
We just don't know. John's parents did not get the closure they wanted,
and John deserves to be found and his family deserved the answers. If you
know anything about John's disappearance, then please contact the charity Missing People. I
will link it in the show notes. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
This is day two of the twelve days of Missing People episodes in December,
so listen out for the next episode in two days. If you'd like
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our ways. I'm Caprice and this has been unseen y