The helplessness must be multiplied thousands of times when a child goes missing in the Far East, somewhere like Cambodia.
Eddie Gibson has not been heard from since 24th October 2004 when he emailed his mother to say he was planning to return to UK from Cambodia on a flight due to leave Bangkok on 1st November. He never arrived.
His parents Jo and Mike have worked tirelessly to keep his profile raised and have issued posters throughout Phnom Penh. They re-visited the country in January this year to again appeal for information. A reward is being offered and private investigators are employed by the family in Cambodia.
Eddie had dropped out of course at Leeds University and took a flight to Thailand, before moving on to Cambodia. His father admits there is an atmosphere in parts of Phnom Penh that leads people to consider doing things they would never dream of at home; it is a country with easy access to girls and drugs.
His mother posted this desperate message on a BBC News website of missing persons following the tsunami:
Please, Please i am desperate for news of my 19 year old son Eddie Gibson he is back packing around Asia, I last heard from him in Cambodia and he could have been on his way to Phi Phi Island, i have not heard from him which is out of his character, please help.
In memory of those who are still missing.
Hi Elle, amidst much bemoaning about the damage caused by the floods in England, and the speculated £1.5 billion cost of clean-up
and the furore raised by the Bishop who suggested it could well be an Act of God
Someone did raise the issue of loss of life and floods in Bangladesh, and I see you are covering people still missing from the Tsunami
Hard sometimes to put into context, that neither the New Orleans floods, or the regular (annual) floods in our flood plains – are hardly any comparison to the loss of life and devastation of floods in Bangladesh and south East Asian Tsunamis
Just so distressing again, Ellee, especially wondering if he was killed or injured in the Tsunami as well. Again, I don’t know how the family copes day to day.
Terrible situation. I thought you might be interested in this from Poland:
http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/gb/dokument.aspx?iid=55140
[…] The person who alerted me to Carole’s disappearance said she is the mother of a friend, and that I had previously written about another friend who had gone missing in Cambodia, Eddie Gibson. […]