mammamaia

the illness thing would work well if he's contagious with something really nasty... that would get everyone in gear right away, as well as bring in the gov't folks who deal with such stuff [who depends on if this is set in the uk or the us]...

__________________
For 100% free writing help/mentoring:
www.saysmom.com

"You must BE the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

mememe

what about involving agencies other than police...Sally Army for instance...they do a lot of missing persons work.

I'm afraid I very much doubt that a missing normal healthy male would be likely to make a policeman give up his own time to take up the cause and if he did and was found out he could face disciplinary action...of course you could have the policeman be a relative or friend or even ex boyfriend of the wife in which case he may have some motivation and decide to help out a bit and run unofficial checks...which you could use as a subplot as he gets in deep doo doo for his actions - recently a female officer was in the headlines for something similar so it isn't beyond the realsm of possibility.

Is police involvement essential for your plotline? Have you spoken to your local officers - if you explain you are writing a book they are usually more than willing to part with information and opinion on scenario/s

Good luck with this...


mmeme

mememe

On the illness front, they may take more notice if he was an insulin dependent diabetic for example...especially one who was normally fastidious about his own health care and it was discovered he was out without his meds...or if he has a severe allergy and carries an epi pen but the wife finds the epi on the dresser - he would need to be allergic to something very common and it would need to be rare for him to not carry the epi for that to work though....or mental illness but even then he would need to be actively suicidal or homicidal before they would shift into action.

In a very small community there may be someone who would take it upon themselves to probe a bit...especially is there was nothing else for them to do....give a man incentive and you'll be amazed and what he'll do

Heid

More possibsle situations now:

I'm thinking of the idea of our man being dependant on pills to treat something like depression or schizophrenia (damn, thats a long word) and maybe he could've forgotten to take his medicine. In which case it would make his dissappearance more of a concern

OR

How about one of the people who reports him missing lie to the police. Perhaps he/she could say that they suspect some sort of kidnap. (I know it's wrong to do stuff like that but hey, it's a story )

mememe

Depression or schizophrenia alone would not be enough to get the average PC plod off his backside and someone could be off meds a while without drawing too much attention to thrmselves. The fact that all his meds bottles were lying empty on the side and he ahd been expression suicidial ideation for a while might work...especially if the GP was aware...but doesn't all of this speculation change the very nature of your missing male? Perhaps he is but a minor player? Hmmm?

As for lying about a kidnap...there would need to be a ransom note or call and then the specialist and forensics teams would be all over them like a rash and with modern forensics any fakery would be quickly uncovered...they always suspect the family too so I doubt that would work...although a lot depends on your story...

Is this a novel you are writing btw?

mememe

Btw..just thought I should mention...my original comments are taken direct from the police manual - a copy of which (donated to my writing cause by the local constabulary) sits happily on my research bookshelf.


mememe

Heid

Yeah it is a novel....the nature of the search is not of high importance I just wanted to make any police involvment as accurate as I could....without being too anal of course