Missing, But Ever-Present: What Mary Left Behind
What happened when my sister-in-law became a missing woman
As a lover of crime fiction in books and TV, I’m familiar with the missing woman plot. She disappears, someone realises she’s not where she should be, the police are called.
The hunt begins.
The media pick up the story and the public supply leads.
Clues are uncovered and the police narrow in on her likely whereabouts.
Crucially, she is always found, even if the outcome isn’t happy.
There is closure. But what about when it happens to your family?
When I saw my mother-in-law’s name pop up on my phone that June Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised and looked forward to the conversation as I hit ‘accept’. That turned to concern when she asked me if I had heard from her daughter, Mary.
Mary and I aren’t close. Not only was that made difficult by us living at opposite ends of the country for most of the last 25 years, we’re also very different people, with different interests. So when my mother-in-law told me that Mary had not come home the previous evening and asked whether she had been in touch, I was honest: I am not the person she would call if she was in trouble. I was pretty sure she…
