It’s been three years and four months since Gareth Koch vanished while trekking in Nepal with a friend in March 2004 aged 24. The two went their separate ways and alarm bells rang after Gareth failed to return home as expected.
His parents have worked tirelessly to find any information about Gareth’s disappearance, including writing to former Prime Minister Tony after learning from the British embassy in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, that there was no money to search for missing tourists.
They have been constantly in touch with the Foreign Office, politicians and diplomats. They have visited Nepal themselves, even handing out posters to Maoist rebels.
A special scouting Gareth Koch Endeavour Shield has been awarded in his memory. The news updates on Gareth’s dedicated website are becoming less frequent, though the family’s agony must continue to increase as yet another day passes with no news.
In memory of those who are still missing.
Ellee, you could set up a special blog for missing people alone and could write an entry everyday it would seem. Good for you to bring these youngsters to our attention. I feel there is not much we can do but at least we know they are still missing. We tend to focalise on cases which appear in the media for a while and then vanish too.
Again, the agony of the family is unimaginable. I think eurodog has a good point about a special blog there.
Ellee,
Thanks for the mention about our son Gareth. The hard part for the family of missing people is to keep the story current. We have tried over the last three years to try to do this, the latest being the Endeavour Shield. As this is now an annual event at least we know that every year young people will learn about Gareth and this will help keep him in people’s memory.
David Koch (Gareth’s Dad)
In answer to Eurodog and Welshcakes, I prefer not to set up a separate blog for missing people, it’s an important part of the “whole” me and I want to share it with everyone who visits this site and reads my posts.
And to the parents of Gareth, I would like to say that he is a son to be proud of. I would like to think I would have the same courage to do the same as you if I were in your shoes. Nobody can imagine what a nightmare it must be. I hope one day you will have good news. Please let me know if there is any way I can continue to help continue to raise the profile of Gareth.