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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Welcome to the last day

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of twelve days of missing People throughout
December. Today we're going to be covering

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the disappearance of seventy five year old
Michael Lee and Grimsby, Lincolnshire in twenty

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eleven. When Michael disappeared, it
came completely out of the blue for his

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family and they couldn't understand what happened
or where he had gone. This episode

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is about a missing person and so
does not contain any descriptions of violence.

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However, listener discretion is advised.
Grimsby is a port town in northeast Lincolnshire,

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with a population in two and nineteen
of around ninety thousand people. The

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neighboring seaside town of Cleethorpes forms a
connurbation with Grimsby, meaning that they are

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connected through their proximity. It is
located around forty five miles from the city

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of Lincoln and around twenty eight miles
from the port city of Hull. Grimsby

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was once home to the largest fishing
port in the world. During the mid

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twentieth century, the fishing industry in
the area declined sharply following the Cod Wars,

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which were disputes between Iceland and the
UK for fishing rights and the EU's

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Common Fisheries Policy which distributed fishing rights
to EU nations. This caused huge economic

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problems for the town as whole families
and generations lost their livelihoods as a result

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of this decline. Grimsby has had
some redevelopment over the years, however,

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has suffered from this huge loss of
industry, meaning that some of the areas

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in the town as some of the
most deprived in the country. Michael Lee

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and his family had grown up in
the town of Grimsby, and he came

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from an aspiring family of entrepreneurs.
His grandfather, Arthur Lee, had set

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up the company Lees Furnishers in Grimsby
in nineteen o one and offered its customers

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beds, carpets, linoleum and bedsteads. The present day website explained about the

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company that during the Edwardian era,
customers were looking for style and elegance,

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saying it was an exciting and innovative
time in furnishing and the right time for

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Arthur Lee to open our original store
on Victoria Street in Grimsby. The business

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flourished and Arthur Lee expanded into a
bigger building next door and began to expand

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his product line. He began to
make the products in house in their warehouse

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and delivered their products first in horse
drawn carriages and then in cars and vans.

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The business continued and was passed down
through generations of the Lee family.

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After over seventy years, the business
moved to new premises on two hundred and

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twenty two Victoria Street and this is
where the business still stands today in the

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town. It's a well known and
reputable shop, with many people visiting for

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their homewear and furnishings. Michael Lee
was part of the third generation of the

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Lee family to take on the business. As he grew up, he attended

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Wintringham School and then started work for
Forrester Boyd accountancy firm. In the nineteen

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eighties, Michael decided to join the
family business and became co director of the

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furnishing firm with his older brother John
for the next thirty years. Michael was

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a pivotal part in the continued success
of the business and did an excellent job

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of steering the company in the right
direction. According to those that knew him,

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Michael was generally a very private man, but with a lot of close

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friends. He was a very keen
golfer, and when he was younger he

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played competitively for Lincolnshire, the Midland
Counties, and on one occasion, for

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England. In his older years,
Michael was an honorary member of Grimsby Golf

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Club and a member of would All
Spa Golf Club. By twenty eleven,

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Michael was seventy five years old,
but by all accounts very much still out

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and about active, fully involved in
the business and socializing with his friends.

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On March the sixth of that year, Michael made a routine visit to his

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older brother John's house, but John
wasn't in at that time, and so

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he spoke to John's wife. He
told her that he'd see John later on

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in that week. Nothing at all
seemed odd about this interaction, and John's

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wife would later report that he seemed
his normal self. John, however,

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wouldn't see his brother later on that
week, as Michael didn't contact him or

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come round to the house. As
the days passed without any contact from Michael,

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John became concerned this wasn't like him
to just not speak to him for

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this length of time, and when
the sixteenth of March came around, John

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had had enough of waiting and decided
that he needed to take some action.

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After being unable to locate or contact
Michael, he filed a missing person's report

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about his brother. He told police
that he'd waited each day for contact with

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Michael, but that none had come
and he was worried about what might have

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happened to him. Humberside police became
involved and began to investigate Michael's missing person

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report. It certainly seemed out of
character for him to just disappear like this

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and not contact his family and friends. They began to look into Michael's movements

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in the time since he had last
been seen. The last known sighting of

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him was on March the sixth,
when he'd visited his brother's house, but

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after that police were unable to confirm
exactly where he'd been. They were able

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to recover Michael's phone records, though, and they discovered that on match the

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seventh, he had made two phone
calls from his landline at home. Looking

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more closely into these phone calls,
they found that they were to the hairdressers

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and to his newsagent. Through investigation, they discovered that Michael had canceled a

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hair appointment that he had booked in, and he'd also canceled his regular newspaper

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delivery. While this didn't give the
police any more clues as to where Michael

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had gone or what had prompted this
decision, it certainly seemed like an odd

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thing to do in light of the
fact that no one had seen him since.

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Something else that police had to take
into consideration was that not only was

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Michael missing, but so was his
car. His blue Mercedes C two twenty

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was also gone, and the assumption
was that wherever Michael went, he traveled

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in his car. They did find
CCTV footage of Michael's car traveling along the

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main road and out of town,
but they had no idea where it went.

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After this point, they had a
missing man and a missing car,

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and this was a concern. Had
Michael just traveled somewhere and didn't want to

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speak to anyone. Had Michael got
into an accident and no one had found

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him. There seemed to be an
abundance of theories without any real answers.

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On March twenty eighth, Twelve days
after John's missing person report was filed,

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hum Beside police put out their first
appeal for Michael. They described the circumstances

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in which he had gone missing and
asked people to be on the lookout for

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his blue Mercedes in case they spotted
it anywhere in the local area or further

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afield. This appeal, however,
did not bring in any new leads.

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As time passed, the concern that
his family had grew and grew. Michael

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had still not been in contact and
his car had still not been located.

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The fact that time was passing without
hearing anything must have been awful for his

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family. By May of twenty eleven, Michael had still not been located,

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and his brother John decided to make
an appeal himself to the public in the

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hope that someone could help his family. Police had stated that they had exhausted

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all lines of inquiry the investigation and
despite their best efforts, they couldn't locate

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him. John told the press about
how hard the previous three months had been,

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saying, we are growing more worried
as the days go by. We

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have not heard from him for almost
three months now, which is completely out

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of character. We're all struck in
limbo at the moment, not knowing if

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something has happened to Mike or where
he is, which is why we're asking

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for help from the public. Someone
out there may have seen Mike recently or

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nowhere he is right now is he
can't have just disappeared without a trace.

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It seemed as though Michael and his
car had just disappeared without a trace sometime

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after the seventh of March, and
this was just incomprehensible to his family and

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the police. There didn't seem to
be any reason why he would have just

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left his life, and no one
could understand it. His family continued to

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hold out hope that he would be
located and the mystery would be solved,

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but by July of twenty eleven,
police were still struggling to track down any

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new leads. There would been no
sightings of Michael during that time, and

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no relevant tips had been sent in
that could help them progress the investigation further.

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John stated that the investigation was reaching
the end of the road. He

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also informed the press that the police
had warned the family that they had to

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be prepared that Michael may have taken
his own life. John said they were

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holding out hope that this wasn't the
case, given that there was no evidence

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of this at that point. His
disappearance was so out of character that nobody

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who knew him had any clue where
he might have gone or why. The

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baffling investigation, as a result,
began to grow cold, and despite John's

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dedication to trying to find his brother
and his appeals, Michael was still missing.

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By twenty fourteen, three years after
he disappeared, John made a statement

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about Michael, explaining how the family
was still being affected. He said,

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it's now been three years since a
member of our family or one of Michael's

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friends saw him or spoke to him. Not a day goes by that we

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don't all think of him and hope
that when that phone rings or the door

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opens, it will be him.
The family are all in complete limbo.

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This really is out of character for
Michael, and we don't know why he'd

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want to leave his life in Grimsby
with all his friends and family. We

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would like some answers, so please
anyone who may have seen Michael and think

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they know where he is called the
police. No matter how big or small

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that information might be, please come
forward. It was hoped that someone would

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remember something or have seen something that
they didn't think was relevant and it might

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jog their memory. Unfortunately, once
again nothing came in and Michael nor his

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car were recovered. As time passed, so it did for the rest of

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Michael's family, and in twenty sixteen, his older brother John passed away without

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finding out what happened to Michael.
His biggest spokesperson an advocate for his case,

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had passed away without any of the
answers that he so desperately wanted.

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This must have been tragic for his
family and did not give them the closure

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that they needed. In twenty eighteen, this is what the Lee family began

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looking for closure. They put in
a claim to the High Court for a

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declaration for presumed death, which,
although a heartbreaking decision to make, has

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to be done in order to set
many people's affairs in order, and of

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course, gives the family some closure
to the sad situation. Michael's nephew,

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Graham Lee, is now running the
family business and is the fourth generation of

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the family to do so. He
spoke about the High Court application, explaining

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that the family may now get closure
from it. He also stated, we

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still have questions. We may never
get answers. This could sum up Michael's

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case perfectly. There is little evidence
to suggest what happened to him, and

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therefore, with little evidence comes few
answers. There was seemingly no indication that

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anything was wrong or bothering Michael at
the time that he disappeared, and there

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were no obvious outside reasons why he'd
want to up and disappear. His family

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believed that this was very out of
character. On the seventh of March twenty

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eleven, he canceled both his upcoming
hair appointment and his regular newspaper delivery,

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got in his car and drove out
of town, disappearing without a trace.

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Had Michael just walked away from his
life, had he taken his own life.

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If this was the case, there
has been no evidence to suggest it,

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for instance, recovery of his body
or his car. Where are these

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things? This is certainly a perplexing
case and one that makes me very sad.

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Michael was clearly a loved family member
and a member of the community in

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Grimsby, and the fact we don't
know what has happened to him is extremely

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tragic. Humberside Police have said that
they have exhausted all lines of inquiry,

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but would welcome all information about Michael's
disappearance, no matter how small. If

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you know anything about the disappearance of
Michael Lee in twenty eleven, then please

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come at humber Side Police on one
oh one. You can also contact the

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charity Missing People using the link in
the show notes. Thank you for listening

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to today's episode, and I want
to thank everyone for supporting the Twelve Days

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of Missing People episodes throughout December.
You have all been liking and sharing the

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episodes and getting these cases out there, so thank you very much. I'll

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be back in the new year on
the fifteenth of January, so i'd like

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to wish you all a happy and
peaceful start to twenty twenty three and I

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can't wait to see you here again
next year. If you'd like to support

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notes. As always, I'm Caprice
and this has been unseen