Family of missing Melton man Paul Baker issue emotional plea - 'We would just like him to let us know that he is okay'

The mum and sister of a man missing from Melton since January are pleading with him to get in contact so they know he is safe. Paul Baker (52) told his parents that he was going out for a drink with a friend in the town centre and left his work car at their house.

The next day, on Monday, January 14, he was reported missing after he didn’t return to his home; the family have not heard from Paul since then and they believe he is living on the streets. His mum and sister say they are “living in limbo” and are trying to carry on while “grieving for someone, but as far as we are aware, we are not grieving for a dead person.”

The last confirmed sighting of Paul is on CCTV in Hastings at the end of January, buying a coffee in McDonald's and withdrawing cash nearby. Paul is also thought to have spoken to someone in Peterborough in February.

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The official police search for Paul was called off as a result of the CCTV footage, the family say, because he didn’t seem in a vulnerable state and he was able to take care of himself. Paul’s sister Sharon Baker (51) and his mum, Jean Baker, (75) spoke with LeicestershireLive.

Jean said: “He used to come up on Saturdays and Sundays to take the dogs out. He had two allotments on Redwood Avenue.

“He made a lot of friends around there, a lot of people knew him. He would do anything for anybody.

“He came up on the 13th January and he came back later and said 'can I leave the work car here'. He said I will leave you the keys in case the alarm goes off, I’m going to meet a friend for a drink.

“Off he went and we couldn’t get in touch with him on the Sunday and next thing we knew he had gone missing.” Paul worked at Select Plants in Harby, suppliers and growers of nursery and forestry plants and trees, which his family say “he loved”.

Jean said when they heard Paul was missing it was a “horrible” feeling. “It was just totally out of character; he has never done anything like that before,” she said.

Sharon said: “We went and looked around town, Redwood Avenue, spoke to his boss and then called the police. The thing with Paul is that he keeps himself to himself.

“He doesn’t have a very big network of friends as such. He has worked for the same company for 26 years.

“Just pure worry. It’s just not knowing whether he is okay, where he is.

“We have heard nothing for weeks now. There was one phone call to my Dad on the Sunday after, which we missed.

“We have kept trying, ringing, and leaving messages. If he doesn’t want to come home then he doesn’t, but we really want to know whether he is okay.”

Jean said her husband, Paul’s dad, has taken his disappearance particularly hard. She has urged Paul to reach out “for his Dad’s sake more than anything”.

“It’s with the worrying and stress of Paul,” she said. “He hasn’t taken it very well.

“He has taken it that Paul has walked away from him personally. For two weeks he couldn’t accept that he had gone.

“[It was] especially hard for him when the work car was outside. It was hard, it did not register that he was gone."

The family believe Paul is moving around, with sightings in Mablethorpe, Skegness, Peterborough and Hastings. Sharon said in the first few weeks of the search every time they had a tip-off she would head out to try and locate Paul, with no luck.

She said: “I have people say to me 'maybe he has gone off to start a new life'. But its three and half months now and whatever his reasons are for leaving, it's not like him to not contact his parents.

"He knows he can walk into any homeless shelter and make contact. What worries me more than anything, we can only assume that he is out there somewhere and we read all the missing persons lists and they turn up dead.

"If he is not on the missing persons list then it could be weeks before they identify him. I know it's a horrible place to go but I do not know anything.

"You are trying to go on, we are grieving for someone but as far as we are aware we are not grieving for a dead person. It’s something you read about but never imagine it happening to you.

"We would just like him to let us know that he is okay. To walk into anywhere and tell them who he is and ask them if he can get them in touch with his parents.

"Nobody is angry, knowing how he thinks he will think everybody is angry. We just want to know he is alive.”

Once the police search was called off, the UK Missing Persons Unit charity also stepped back from the search. It won’t be until the six month mark of Paul’s disappearance that they can restart their investigation.

The family are fundraising to try and involve a specialist to help their search for Paul. To donate you can visit their page on GoFundMe by searching ‘Help find Paul Baker’.

If you have any information about Paul’s whereabouts you can head to the Paul Baker - Missing Person page on Facebook.

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