A Belfast father who vanished while on vacation is the subject of an urgent hunt in Spain. After missing his trip home to spend Christmas with his two children, John Hardy, also known as John George, was reported missing, reports The Mirror.
Three weeks prior, he had taken a plane to Alicante to see friends, and he had called friends to inform them that he was leaving for Belfast on December 18 but never arrived. His family has travelled to the popular vacation destination to look for him because his cell phone hasn’t been working since December 14.
Given that he was apparently “distressed” during his most recent phone contact home, his loved ones feel the circumstances surrounding his absence are alarming, reports The Mirror.
They are presently searching the Spanish resort every day out of extreme concern.
Since John’s abduction is being handled as a missing person inquiry, the family is also worried that Spanish police may be overlooking important evidence, reports The Mirror.
The family won’t stop until John is returned home, according to Darren, John’s distraught younger brother. He said the family has been “ripped to pieces” in an interview with Belfast Live on Saturday from Alicante.
Darren said: “We very much stuck in limbo but a lot of people have come from Belfast to help us look for John and there’s more coming every day. The support from Belfast has been unbelievable and there’s about 40 of us now involved in the search. Every local out here in Spain has been supporting us too. They’ve been out with dogs and drones helping us look. My mum and dad are out here together with my sisters and partners and John’s partner. But we’re having to scour through thousands of acres every day. Christmas Eve and Day was spent searching fields and today we’re down at the beach and marina area. We’re searching from morning to night and there’s been no let up at all since we got over here this week,” reports The Mirror.
Darren added: “As a family, we will not stop until we find him but at the minute we’ve very little to go on. We’re praying for someone to come forward anonymously and give us a bit of information so that we can recover his body and get him home. We know John is dead and not missing so we just need to get him back. There’s a £30,000 (€36,177) reward from family and friends for any information that leads us to him so we want somebody to come forward from any of his friends. We just need this nightmare to end and we’re doing everything in our power to find him,” reports The Mirror.
“Our mum has had two strokes and dad has had a heart attack but they are in their 50s and running around Spain looking for John. Mum is climbing mountains, crawling down caves and knocking doors in. We’re just devastated and heartbroken and John has two young kids at home who just want their daddy back. We’re hugely grateful for all the support both out here in Spain and back in Belfast. Everyone has been fantastic but right now we just need some vital information or tip off to get John’s body back. This can all stop now and be over but it won’t until we get John back. We will fight every day and we have to move to Spain, we will move to Spain. But we will not be leaving Spain without John’s body,” reports The Mirror.
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