ABSTRACT
For someone you love to go missing, and then not to find them for days, weeks, months or years is an unimaginable experience for many. The emotional impact is significant. It is not the same as bereavement, although there is grieving. To miss someone and not know if they are alive or dead means for many an inability to move on and generates emotions that are nearly impossible to cope with. This chapter explores the key themes in research about the emotional impact on families when someone goes, and stays, missing. Furthermore, this chapter will introduce new testimony collected from 12 families of missing people, some of whom were interviewed in spring 2013. The family members involved wished their names to be used, reflecting a desire to openly share their personal story.
