Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases and UK true crime.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be covering a missing person case
Speaker 1: which was brought to my attention by our lovely and
Speaker 1: very supportive listener Louise, who had spotted a post by
Speaker 1: West Midlands Police. The post captured my attention and I
Speaker 1: felt it was a definite good fit for the podcast.
Speaker 1: The disappearance of forty four year old Douglas Mortimer in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one has been a mystery since it occurred,
Speaker 1: and his family have recently appealed last month for anyone
Speaker 1: who knows anything to come forward with information. I would
Speaker 1: love to support them in getting the word out about
Speaker 1: Douglas's disappearance. This is going to be one of our
Speaker 1: shorter episodes. Is often the case with missing person cases
Speaker 1: where there is limited information, but I believe it's an
Speaker 1: important one. This episode is about a missing person and
Speaker 1: so there are no graphic descriptions, but listener discretion is
Speaker 1: always advised. During December nineteen eighty one, the family of
Speaker 1: Douglas Mortimer became concerned when they hadn't seen or heard
Speaker 1: from him. This was Unlike Douglas, who has been described
Speaker 1: as a home loving and stable father of three. By
Speaker 1: all accounts, Douglas was not one to just disappear without
Speaker 1: speaking to his family or letting them know what he
Speaker 1: was doing, and this was unusual. Douglas lived in Woodgate
Speaker 1: in Quinton, a suburb of the city of Birmingham, and
Speaker 1: he worked with a seven Trent Water Authority as well
Speaker 1: as Ladywood's Social Club. In nineteen eighty one, he was
Speaker 1: living with his daughter at her home. The concern grew
Speaker 1: as Douglas failed to return to the home and he
Speaker 1: didn't turn up to meet his friends at Ladywood Social
Speaker 1: Club on the third of December. There was no sign
Speaker 1: of where he might have gone to Those that knew
Speaker 1: him speculated that he had around fifty pounds on him
Speaker 1: when he left, and it didn't seem that he had
Speaker 1: taken anything with him that he would need to be
Speaker 1: away for any substantial period of time. Douglas's family contacted
Speaker 1: the West Midlands Police to try and track Douglas down,
Speaker 1: as this disappearance was so out of character for him.
Speaker 1: West Midland's police began investigating the disappearance and piecing together
Speaker 1: what had happened and when he might have disappeared. They
Speaker 1: were able to establish that Douglas had last been seen
Speaker 1: on December the third. It was a Thursday, and they
Speaker 1: knew that he had decided to go and visit his
Speaker 1: wife in his way was separated at that time, and
Speaker 1: he'd reportedly gone to visit her at the teaching center
Speaker 1: in Ladywood, where she worked as a caretaker. This visit
Speaker 1: had been to sort out some of their affairs as
Speaker 1: a result of the couple's separation. It was known that
Speaker 1: this visit with his wife had not gone especially well,
Speaker 1: and that they'd had an argument. A CID spokesman said
Speaker 1: at the time, they had an argument and he left
Speaker 1: in his car, and that was the last time anyone
Speaker 1: has seen or heard from him. The fact that his
Speaker 1: disappearance had been after an argument added an even more
Speaker 1: worrying aspect to the case. Where did Douglas go after
Speaker 1: this and where was his car? Police began trying to
Speaker 1: track down Douglas's blue Ford Cortina with the registration number
Speaker 1: JXD three three nine K, in the hope that if
Speaker 1: they found his car, they would find him within two weeks.
Speaker 1: They also distributed a description of Douglas so that people
Speaker 1: would be able to spot him if they saw him around.
Speaker 1: Douglas was described as five feet eight inches tall. He
Speaker 1: had short, dark graying hair, blue eyes, and a stocky build.
Speaker 1: He was clean shaven at the time and was wearing
Speaker 1: a water board jacket which had the word waterworks on
Speaker 1: the back. It was hoped that this distinctive description would
Speaker 1: mean someone would be able to help the police track
Speaker 1: him down. They were also concerned about Douglas's disappearance due
Speaker 1: to the circumstances in which he had gone missing, and
Speaker 1: they were worried about his state of mind at the time.
Speaker 1: He hadn't even contacted his job to let them know
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't be in work, and this was very
Speaker 1: out of character for him. There were many reasons to
Speaker 1: be worried about Douglas. Another was that when the police
Speaker 1: contacted his bank to try his movements, they discovered that
Speaker 1: he hadn't drawn out any money, meaning that he still
Speaker 1: only had the money that he left with. Police continued
Speaker 1: to try and figure out what happened and where Douglas
Speaker 1: had gone. Months passed, however, without much progress being made,
Speaker 1: and Douglas nor his car were recovered. Nine months after
Speaker 1: Douglas disappeared, an article ran discussing the investigation. Police explained
Speaker 1: that they were worried about his safety as he seemed
Speaker 1: to have just disappeared into thin air. A senior detective
Speaker 1: on the investigation was quoted as saying, where he is
Speaker 1: now is a mystery we would dearly love to solve.
Speaker 1: It's just as though he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Speaker 1: The detective also gave some more context to the moment
Speaker 1: that Douglas disappeared, saying that his wife described speaking to
Speaker 1: him for around ten minutes and he then left in
Speaker 1: a temper. The senior detective said, we are puzzled about
Speaker 1: this case. Some of his family fear he could have
Speaker 1: been done harm. They are also worried that he might
Speaker 1: take his own life because he was depressed. If he
Speaker 1: is alive, he would like to hear from him as
Speaker 1: soon as possible, particularly to reassure his relatives. The fear
Speaker 1: that Douglas may have come to harm was something that
Speaker 1: worried everyone surrounding the case, given that he had just
Speaker 1: split up from his wife, and this may have been
Speaker 1: a contributing factor. Moore was revealed in October nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: when it was announced that police had got three anonymous
Speaker 1: calls stating that Douglas had actually been seen with an
Speaker 1: unknown woman. It was not said when Douglas had been
Speaker 1: spotted with this woman, if it was before he disappeared
Speaker 1: or after. In the same article from October, it stated
Speaker 1: that Douglas's daughter said, I know at the time that
Speaker 1: he disappeared. He said he was frightened. Once again, there's
Speaker 1: nothing more said about what this meant, and what he
Speaker 1: was frightened of was not clear. It certainly could and
Speaker 1: should have been a line of inquiry that was followed
Speaker 1: up by the West Midlands Police. Over the years since
Speaker 1: Douglas Mortimer went missing, there have been appeals to try
Speaker 1: and locate him. However, to the present day he's still
Speaker 1: not been found and neither has his car. It's as
Speaker 1: though he just vanished without a trace. It's now one
Speaker 1: of the longest running missing person cases for West Midland's
Speaker 1: Police and it's a case that they want to try
Speaker 1: and solved. Just last month they issued an appeal on
Speaker 1: their website and social media to try and drum up
Speaker 1: some more information about his day disappearance. West Midland's Police
Speaker 1: have said that no trace of Douglas has been found
Speaker 1: after his disappearance, and that despite the passage of time,
Speaker 1: they hope that a new appeal may jog someone's memory.
Speaker 1: It's always hoped that despite the age of the case,
Speaker 1: someone can help and that the missing person's family can
Speaker 1: find out what has happened to them. Douglas would now
Speaker 1: be eighty seven years old and his family are desperate
Speaker 1: for help to try and find him. I know that
Speaker 1: the appeal did reach a lot of people, and I
Speaker 1: hope that one of those people had the information that
Speaker 1: his family were looking for. If you know anything about
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Douglas Mortimer, please contact the Missing Person's
Speaker 1: Investigation Unit on zero one two one six two six
Speaker 1: seven zero zero three. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
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Speaker 1: this has been unseen p