Each year, local councils throughout the U.K. bury hundreds of people. These people died without any known next of kin, or links to identifying information. In those five years, Section 46 funerals have increasingly come into focus. In real terms, they’ve gone up 23% from 2018 to 2023. In a society where individuals can vanish without a trace, the question arises: how can so many people die unidentified?
Locate International is a charitable organisation dedicated to restoring dignity in death. Beyond this, they serve as powerful ambassadors and leaders, as they fight every day to shed light on the plight of those left behind. Co-founded by retired Detective Inspector Dave Grimstead, this organization aims to provide resolution for families of long-term missing persons and reunite unidentified bodies with their names. Grimstead’s more than 25 years’ experience leading investigations into child homicide and serious organized crime cases shapes the organization’s mission today.
The NCA has the UK Missing Persons Unit database, which as of now includes more than 13,000 names. This number has jumped significantly in the last 10 years, as new cases are constantly being filed each week. Experts contend that there’s no overarching system for the missing. This is even more troubling given the façade of a unified, federal response to our crisis, evidenced by the NCA’s national database of unidentified remains.
Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Greenhalgh described the situation as a “Swiss cheese model, where little issues add up to a larger problem.” He puts a real spotlight on the difficulties that investigators encounter, especially when it comes to people who are living transient lifestyles in bigger metro areas. “There are people that are off the grid… It makes the investigation harder,” he noted.
One of those who’ve paid too high a price in this opaquely confusing system is Bryan Woolis. Asking a simple question about a man who had been a mystery for almost 10 years, Woolis’s fate was unknown until just recently. As a young man, he was personable, charismatic and the life of the party. Despite the bright surface, he regularly struggled with his mental health and fought against deep-seated melancolía and alienation. Woolis relocated to London in the early 2000s, his sister having previously lived in north London.
Freya Couzens, who just learned of Woolis’s fate, was inspired to help crack the case surrounding Woolis so that she could contribute to his story. The Locate International team had the privilege of poring over this photograph of Wallace on a Long Canal Boat. They located a printed photograph of him on just that same Tyneside boat, in splendid arab/bedouin garb to match the attire he sported in his digs. This important piece of evidence played a key role in helping identify Woolis.
The work of Locate International highlights an essential aspect of the human experience: the need for closure. Professor Karen Shalev points out that “missing has not been prioritised at government level for decades.” She emphasizes the lack of communication among police forces, stating, “People ask why police forces don’t communicate with each other… It’s because there isn’t a system to do so.”
The scenario before us is hugely problematic and compounds the horror of societal responsibility to those who go missing and die without identification. Dozens of families are still left with unanswered questions and unresolved grief. Locate International is committed to taking this new reality head on. The nonprofit organization’s work is an inspiring example of the growing acknowledgment that everyone deserves dignity while living and in death.