Glasgow's missing people: City cops investigations revealed after thousands of people vanish

The figures, which was obtained exclusively by the Evening Times under the Freedom of Information act, reveal that Police Scotland's Greater Glasgow Division launched 2,979 investigations into the whereabouts of missing people in the city from April 1, 2016 to April 20 this year.

Those figures from the National Missing Persons Database show that city cops are dealing with seven missing people per day on average.

Police Scotland said that the National Missing Persons Database records missing person investigations undertaken by the force.

The database, however, does not record the number of missing people reported. This is because someone may be reported missing but they quickly return home before any police investigation has begun.

The reasons for people going missing are not recorded but those who have vanished can be placed into categories that may give indications as to the background or circumstances of an investigation.

A missing person is firstly categorised under adult, cared for adult, child or looked after child. Vulnerabilities including mental health and dementia are also recorded.

The figures as of April showed that most police cases involved children with the total percentage of missing persons under the age of 18 reported missing at 63 per cent.

People who were reported missing with mental health issues accounted for around 25 per cent of the figure. Those missing people with dementia were recorded at three per cent.

Cops in the city dealt with some high profile missing people cases during the period in which the figures cover.

Last June, officers spent almost a week searching for mum-of-four Kirsty Aitchison, above, who is deaf. The 30-year-old had been on a night out with Scotland Deaf Booze Crew at Campus in Sauchiehall Street.

She left the popular nightspot and CCTV footage revealed she walked down Sauchiehall Street to Argyle Street and on to James Watt Street before heading to the Broomielaw where she was last seen.

Police launched a major search operation to find Kirsty. Extra resources from the Glasgow’s Divisional Violence Reduction Unit were deployed across the city in the search for Kirsty while the deaf community formed teams who combed over parks.

Kirsty was later recovered from the River Clyde near the Kingston Bridge, and her death was not treated as suspicious.

It was five months before Janet McQueen, above,  58, was found after she disappeared from her Govanhill home in October.

Police found Janet in Pollok Country Park in March after an investigation which included widespread door-to-door enquiries across the city. Specialist teams were called in to search rear courtyards around Janet’s home and within Queens Park. Her death was also treated as not suspicious.

Samuel Townsley's (above) disappearance still remains an active case for city cops. He was last seen speaking to police officers as part of a ‘routine check’ on Union Street in October. Police Scotland said the search for the 28-year-old had taken them all over Scotland as they followed up different leads into his whereabouts. His sister Ann Margaret Allan, 32, previously made an emotional plea for his return as police revealed that they have enlisted the help of Scotland’s large traveller community.

The Evening Times also obtained figures which showed that cops working in the outskirts of the city are dealing with a large number of missing persons investigations.

For the same period, the Lanarkshire Division launched 2,876 missing person investigations which would have included the disappearance of missing Coatbridge man Sean McKenna, above. Sean's body was found in a loch at Drumpellier Country Park, weeks after police launched their investigation last October.

In the Argyll and West Dunbartonshire Division of Police Scotland, the figure was 954. Teenager Scott Diver, above, was one of those cases for that division. The 16-year-old vanished from his Clydebank home and was found months later in a wooded area near to Old Kilpatrick in November.

In the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Division of Police Scotland, above, the figure was 553. Donald McPhee, 65, remains missing from his home in Grahamston, Paisley. He vanished earlier this month.