The Assistance and Search for Missing Persons (ARPD) now has two delegates for Deux-Sèvres: Anne-Marie Curé and Cathy. “The association has existed since 2003. We knew it through the television show Call for witnesses. The department was not very well covered and that made us want to get started”explains Anne-Marie Curé.
The 1901 law association, which had 650 investigators in 2023, intervenes when the family of a missing person calls on it “because the investigation is stalled or the person in question is an adult and no investigation is open”.
“In France, every year, nearly 70,000 people disappear”
This then delegates power to the ARPD to carry out research. “As a first step, we will always tell families to report the disappearance to the police authorities. Then we meet them. They describe the personality of the missing person, the context of the disappearance, the key dates and the last contacts”specifies Anne-Marie Curé. The ARPD publishes a notice on social networks: Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The investigators also activate their network of volunteers, 750 nationally, to travel and investigate. “Among them, many are former SRPJ investigators [Service régional de police judiciaire] and social services. They have their own contacts. » They maintain relations with the gendarmerie and the police and can transmit information.
“In France, every year, nearly 70,000 people disappear, including 50,000 minors. Many of them are found, but on average, 1,000 will never be”underlines Anne-Marie Curé.
200 to 300 new files per year
Runaways, kidnappings, escapes, death and illness are the five most common causes of disappearance. The ARPD can handle very old files. “The information collected is centralized at the national level. »
Each year, the association takes on 200 to 300 new cases. Around a hundred cases are closed annually. Some may concern a resumption of an investigation following a decision to close the case by the judicial authorities. The investigator then carries out a complete re-examination of the case.
In the event of discovery of the missing person, the ARPD obtains their explicit agreement before putting them in contact with the relatives who undertook the search. In all cases, the family is informed of the outcome of the search.
“For them, it’s a lot of emotion. They do research, question themselves. The fact that we listen to them does them a lot of good”notes Anne-Marie Curé. In many disappearances, “Family is the crux of everything”.
National contact details: [email protected], tel. 06.32.78.29.25 or 06.85.14.62.91.
