As the Mirror continues its Missed campaign, grieving children reveal the heartbreak they’re suffering after their dads went missing and how this Father’s Day they just want them to come home.
Gulping down the painful feelings that always surface on Father’s Day, Tessa Capon closes her eyes – searching for hope.
Hope, her favourite photo and a tatty old teddy bear are the things she holds on to every time. For, while children everywhere celebrate their dads, telling them they love them, she has only memories, photographs and mementoes to remind her of her own father, Andrew Capon, who went missing 27 years ago.
Tessa has bravely come together with four other children of missing dads, who would give anything to tell them, ‘I love you,’ on Father’s Day, today.
Five-year-old Dottie, April, eight, Chanel, 18, Dougie, 21, and Tessa, who is 41, are all speaking out to support the Mirror’s Missed campaign, run with the backing of the charity, Missing People – which is calling for better support and care for missing people and their families.
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These children hope that telling their stories might help to find their missing fathers. Tessa, whose dad Andrew disappeared without trace after a night out with three friends in the Lincolnshire coastal town of Skegness on October 2, 1998, says: “Father’s Day is the hardest day of the year. Another year you can’t spend Father’s Day with your dad.
“You’ve just got to keep hoping that one day you’ll find him. Hope is all that missing families have. But as the years go on, I’m starting to feel like time is running out – 27 years is a long time.”
Nearly three decades after Andrew went missing, despite searching endlessly for answers, his family still have no idea what happened to him. When he disappeared in 1998, he was 37-years-old, but now he’ll be 64 and he has 12 grandchildren, aged from 4 to 24 waiting to meet him.
“Before she died, my nan gave me this teddy bear which belonged to my dad – it’s 62 years old,” Tessa whispers, tearfully. “I really hoped we’d find him for my nan before she died, but sadly we couldn’t.”
Just a child when she last saw her dad, Tessa has carried a massive burden of guilt for 27 years, which eats away at her, because she hasn’t been able to find him. She explains: “The biggest emotion that’s stayed with me over the 27 years is guilt. Guilt that I didn’t stop him leaving that day, guilt that I can’t find him. I just want to bring my dad home – I feel like I’ve let people down.”
Meanwhile, this Father’s Day will be the first year that Douglas Mills’ four children – Dottie, 5, April, 8, Chanel, 18, and Dougie, 21, won’t be able to wish their doting dad a happy Father’s Day. Known as a “family man,” the 44-year-old went missing from Uxbridge, greater London, almost six months ago, on January 25.
And his kids are desperate to see him again. The day he disappeared his devoted partner-of-18 years, Adrienne Sparkle, 37, came home to find the back door wide open and an empty house.
“He just vanished,” Adrienne says. “I noticed the back door was open and his cigs were there, so I called upstairs thinking maybe he was having a lie down. He’s a real family man, a great dad. April and Dottie adore him. He loves being silly with them and joking around. He also has a lot of time for his family, his mum, his sister. Him staying away for this long, it just doesn’t make sense.”
When asked what they would say to their dad if they could this Father’s Day, April says: “I love you, Daddy.” Dottie adds: “My dad’s special because he does so much for us and he makes us laugh, pulling silly faces.”
And those painful, turbulent feelings do not ease with age. Twenty-one-year-old Dougie is suddenly too upset to speak and has to leave the room.
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Chanel sobs, saying: “If he’s watching this, I’d like to tell him to just come home. “The past few months, I’ve had so much going on and him not being here really hurts. We all miss him so much.” For Adrienne, Doug’s disappearance is a daily nightmare.
She is having to manage her own feelings, while holding everything together for the sake of their kids. Their youngest girls April and Dottie often ask ‘when is daddy going to stop hiding?’
In a voice filled with emotion, Adrienne says: “If you’re listening, Doug, I need you home. I love you and I miss you. I wish I’d told you how much you mean to me. We all need you and love you. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. I don’t know how to carry on without you. Please come home, Doug, we really love and miss you.”
Sadly, Andrew, Doug and their families are not alone. In the time it takes to read this article, another person will have been reported missing in the UK.
Some 170,000 people disappear off our streets each year and a significant number of them are men. In the UK, 118 men go missing each day in England and Wales alone.
For many of those who go missing, mental health, financial difficulties and relationship breakdowns can be the cause of them going missing. And a father’s disappearance can have a devastating impact on his family, as these children’s poignant words reveal so movingly.
Their children are left scared, worried and helpless – emotions that can affect their behaviour, school work and can sometimes lead to children wanting to run away from it all.
A spokesperson for Missing People says: “When a father goes missing, the impact on children and the wider family is profound and long-lasting. Children are left with painful uncertainty — struggling to understand why their parent has gone, whether they’re safe and if they will ever return.
“That emotional limbo can affect their mental health, education and sense of security for years to come. Families are left carrying both emotional and practical burdens, often with no answers or closure.
“That’s why prevention is so crucial. Early intervention, access to support services, and public awareness can help address the issues that lead someone to go missing — from mental health crises to relationship breakdowns or financial pressure.
“By tackling these problems before they escalate, we can prevent more families from facing this devastating experience. But we can’t do this alone. The support of the public — whether through donations, volunteering, or simply spreading awareness — is vital to sustaining the work we do.
READ MORE: Everything you should do if you believe someone is missing
“Every act of support helps us reach more families, provide critical services, and advocate for change. Together, we can ensure that no one has to face the pain of a missing loved one without hope, help, and a path forward.”
The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.
• The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK via a live interactive map, in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.