Manchester

Our first search operation Call Out of 2014 came in to the team today, when at 15.34hrs we were contacted via SARCALL to assist GMP with a search operation for a missing 50 years old man in the Northenden / Wythenshawe area of South Manchester.

The man was missing in circumstances giving cause for concern as to his well being by both his family and associates and GMP.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE spent some time liaising with GMP to establish various search parameters, whilst other team members pre pared search area mapping.

At 15.40hrs the team was paged to go to immediate standby, with a full team call out paged at 16.28hrs.

Members met to then depart our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ at 17.30hrs.

By 18.05hrs a large number of our team members had met up with Police search resources at the search RVP established at The Kingdom Hall, Jehovahs Witness, Palatine Road, Northenden, Manchester. (Huge thanks to the staff here for opening up their car park for this use, it was much appreciated)

By 18.16hrs we had made the first search deployment that of our specialist Mountain Rescue Trailing Dog Boris and his Handler Steve Nelson (Bolton MRT / SARDA Wales) aided by navigator Elaine Gilliland.

A large mixed GMP / Bolton MRT search party was then deployed at circa 18.36hrs to search areas of dense woodland alongside Princess Parkway A5103 in the Wythenshawe / Northenden area.

A Police helicopter then joined in this growing search effort, arriving at circa 20.22hrs, and noted a ‘heat source’ in a patch of dense woodland, in Wythenshawe Park.

Co-incidentally a man out walking his dog, which turned out to be an ex Police Dog, attracted the attention of the helicopter as the dog was seen from the air to go in to the woodland and check out the heat source as well. (Webmaster – maybe the dog thought it was back on duty?)

A mixed ground search party of 4x GMP PCSO’s and seven Bolton MRT members were then directed to this small area of dense woodland, by the Police Helicopter, and subsequently located the missing man concerned, at around circa 20.36hrs.

An NWAS Ambulance was called, and the missing (now located) man was walked with assistance by a PCSO and BMRT member Dave Cook to the Ambulance for onward transfer to hospital for health checks.

From scene a pager stand down was sent at 21.02hrs with our last assets leaving the search RVP at 22.15hrs.

The following resources were involved in this search operation;

• Greater Manchester Police; Force Control Room / Force Duty Officer, 1x Police Missing Person Search Manager, at least six PCSO’s, Divisional Police Officers, and two CID Officers.
• National Police Air Service; NPAS 21 Helicopter, from City Airport Manchester (Barton)
• NWAS (Greater Manchester); Emergency Ambulance from Sharston Ambulance Station, two person crew.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Twenty six Team Call Out members on scene, one team member at Base / HQ, one further team member stood down responding. Four Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, Team Minibus Ambulance, Team Incident Control Vehicle.
• North East Wales search and Rescue Team; One team member.
• SARDA (Wales); One specialist Mountain Rescue Trailing Dog, Boris and his Handler Steve Nelson (Also a Bolton MRT member, also included in the BMRT numbers involved figure above)

This search was an excellent example of Greater Manchester Police, NPAS and MRT resources working together to reach a successful outcome.

The GMP Missing Person Search Manager involved was former long serving Bolton MRT member Chris Moody, who during his time in our Team served on a number of Team Council positions, including our Training Officer and our Chairman.

On Saturday evening, 6th October, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was contacted directly by a GMP Missing Person Search Manager, regards the teams assistance with an on going search enquiry to locate a missing twenty four year old man.

The search was to be mounted on Sunday 7th October, in the Boggart Hole Clough / Boggart Hole Park area of Blackley, Manchester, with our Team Leader informing GMP this being within the primary operational area of Oldham MRT.

Our Team Leader in agreement with GMP then liaised with Oldham MRT, who had been deployed to Machynlleth, as part of the large scale MRT operation to search for the missing five year old girl, April Jones.

Oldham MRT passed the search over to the Bolton MRT to deal with, should the search be confirmed.

On Sunday morning, 7th October, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE liaised with a GMP Missing Person Search Manager, and the search operation was confirmed, with the team agreeing to meet at Boggart Hole Clough for circa 13.00hrs.

A request was made by our Team Leader to Peter Goble, Team Leader of Rossendale and Pendle MRT for his teams assistance with this search, but they were both deployed to Machynlleth, searching for April Jones, and also on a local standby rescue cover (Being called to an incident on this whilst Garry was talking to Peter!) and so could not assist us due to their on going commitments.

We then contacted Cheshire Search and Rescue Team, who were able to attend and assist.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE also contacted Phil O’Brien, Team Leader of Bowland Pennine MRT requesting they be available to cover in turn for the Bolton MRTs area in case of further incident, as we would be fully committed to this search operation.

Arriving at Boggart Hole Clough, it was established that the male concerned, from a nearby property had been reported missing by a family member on 26th September 2012.

An on going Police investigation in to his disappearance led GMP to ultimately believe that he may be in the Boggart Hole Clough area, which consists of open grasslands, parkland, open and dense woodlands and a number of steep sided heavily vegetated ravines.

A joint GMP, Bolton MRT, Cheshire SART search operation commenced at just after 14.00hrs, with Bolton MRT coordinating the search operation, and also providing catering for the search (With thanks to Bolton MRT Support Group members Iain Clarkson, Laura Tunnicliffe and Julie Thompson for crewing our Catering Trailer)

Around mid afternoon, very sadly a body was discovered in Boggart Hole Clough / Boggart Hole Park, by a Cheshire SART search party, in the same vicinity our SARDA Trailing Dog had indicated upon as ‘an area of interest.’

The Cheshire SART members present (Three) immediately instigated forensic / scene of death protocols and established an inner cordon.

They were joined very quickly by a mixed Bolton MRT / Cheshire SART small party, and a GMP Officer, who further established an outer cordon.

All other search personnel were then recalled to the search RVP which had been established at the main car park to Boggart Hole Clough. (Thanks to the Parks Patrol Officer for opening the toilet facilities up for our use)

With the arrival of more Police Officers, the cordon was gradually handed over to the control of Police Officers, with the MRT / SART personnel on hold should we be required to evacuate the body.

Early in the evening, following Police investigations, we were then tasked with the evacuation of the mans body from the park to the waiting undertakers vehicle, with the evacuation being undertaken by a mixed Bolton MRT (9x) and Cheshire SART (1x) party, which was concluded at 18.45hrs.

By 19.16hrs all MRT / SART personnel had left the search RVP.

The sincere condolences of all Bolton MRT and Cheshire SART members involved in this tragic outcome search operation are expressed to the family and friends of the man involved.

The following resources were deployed to this search operation on scene;

• Greater Manchester Police; 1x Missing Person Search Manager, Chief Superintendent, Inspector, Sergeant, two PCs, four PCSOs, three CID Officers, and two Mounted Officers.
• Manchester City Council Incident Response Parks Patrol; One Officer and vehicle.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Four Team Land Rover Ambulance vehicles, Team Minibus Ambulance, 3.5m Semi Rigid Inflatable SAR Boat (Which was to be deployed on the Park Lake along with Water Search and Rescue Personnel from our integral water team) Control Trailer, Catering Trailer. 28x Call Out list members, 3x Support Group members.
• Cheshire Search and Rescue Team; Two Land Rover SAR Ambulance vehicles, one Control Vehicle, 14x Call Out list members.
• SARDA (Wales); Search Dog Handler Steve Nelson (Bolton MRT – included also with the above figures) and Trailing Search Dog Boris.