Filenews 2 January 2021 - by Myrto Zoubidou
Eighty-four missing persons are currently registered with the police. Among them are minor or very young adults, foreigners, who either left the houses where they worked, or were in the country for other reasons and elderly people who have been absent from the family home for a very long time.
Among the missing persons, who are on the lists of the Police, stand out several cases that have occasionally occupied the news, such as the case of Maria Cacoyannis who has been absent from her home since April 2012. The 39-year-old, then Maria, remains on the missing women's list and although police estimates are that she is not alive, her relatives have so far been looking for her.
The oldest chronologically missing in the police records is the 72-year-old from Saita, Savvas Charis, who has been absent from his residence since 31 July 1990. He was last seen at 3 p.m. of the same day swimming in the Lady's Mile area of Limassol. Since then, his trail has been lost.
Two elderly people whose whereabouts were lost in 2019 and were heavily in the news are 77-year-old Andreas Agathangelou from Larnaca, who has been absent from his home in the Agioi Anargyri area since 4/7/2019, and 85-year-old Dimitris Gregorios, who has been missing from his home in Paphos since 19/12/2019. For the two elderly people, both the authorities and several citizens were immediately mobilised to locate them, but there was no positive result. To this day, their relatives have been constantly calling for them to be traced.
They 'dusted off' files and changed their wheels after the Metaxa case.
The Metaxa case opened the Asc of Aeolian, sparking a storm of reactions to the action of the Police in the cases of the disappearances of the five women and two girls. At the same time, the findings of the independent criminal investigators put before their responsibilities 15 members of the Police, against whom, on instructions from the former Attorney General, a criminal case has been opened before a court.
However, errors and omissions in these cases have brought sweeping changes in the way cases of missing persons are managed and investigated.
Police spokesman Christos Andreou, in an assessment of the change in the way missing persons are handled, notes to associated news that the changes have brought tangible results especially in speed and improved procedures.
The cases, he said, involving complaints about missing persons, adults or minors, as well as those involving disappearances of children, are considered of paramount importance to the Police. "In such cases a specific protocol of action is activated for immediate action," Mr Andreou said.
The protocol has been prepared to guide members of the Police in the investigation and handling of such cases. This lists the guidelines and the main actions to be taken. However, each case has its own peculiarities, which should be taken into account by investigators.
The supervision and coordination of the actions required in these cases has been entrusted to the Office for the Handling of Domestic Violence, Child Abuse and Missing Persons.
The Police have updated their Archive and are now following these routes when a person is declared by their relatives to be missing.
Police members who deal with cases of missing persons now have specific guidelines, through a police provision, for handling cases. At an early stage the missing are divided into vulnerable and non-vulnerable persons. Vulnerable persons are all under the age of 18 or over 65 with health issues or suspected criminal activity. The level of risk is then assessed and the investigation of the case begins. Cases of non-vulnerable persons are handled by local stations, while those involving vulnerable persons are examined by the Crime Detection Departments of the Police Directorates where the disappearance was reported.
Relevant guidelines for actions to investigate missing persons are also available with regard to the publication of photographs, the control of social media, but also the involvement of competent departments and services. With regard to the handling of missing persons who appear to be related to the occupied areas, the investigation shall be carried out with the cooperation of the competent Bi-Community Committee.
