EXPERTS from Hong Kong, Israel, Canada and South Africa will travel to Scotland this month for a conference on missing people.
Interpol’s Dr Susan Hitchin will be amongst the keynote speakers at the two-day event, which will cover cases of missing children, the identification and recovery of bodies and coping with dementia-related “wander-walkers”.
More than 150 delegates are expected to attend the International Conference on Missing Children and Adults at Abertay University in Dundee. The June weekend marks the first time the event has been held in Scotland.
Topics will also include parental alienation, links between repeat runaways and sexual exploitation and the use of technology in missing persons cases, as well as the movement of the human body in water and “the cultural space between life and death”.
Abertay forensic psychologist Dr Penny Woolnough, who is chairing the conference, said: “A missing person case can range from a teenager failing to come home over a weekend to more sinister incidents where foul play is involved, and as such the sector presents a mammoth challenge for police forces and partner agencies.
“By coming together to exchange knowledge in this way, the agencies dealing with these issues on the frontline will go away better equipped to find people and also to offer the suitable support to those involved, the families affected and the staff who must sometimes deal with harrowing discoveries.”
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