Daughter's desperate appeal to trace hill-walking dad, 84, missing in Scotland

A distraught daughter has thanked authorities and the public for their support in trying to find her elderly, hill-walking father who has now been missing for over three days.

John Smith, from Nottingham, was last seen at the Crianlarich Hotel, in Perthshire, at 7.15am on Thursday, August 5.

The 84-year-old was driving his grey Mazda 6 estate, registration YD60 RNZ

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John is 5ft 10ins, of slim build, with grey hair thinning on top.

John Smith (84), from Nottinghamshire, has been missing from Crianlarich since Thursday, August 5John Smith (84), from Nottinghamshire, has been missing from Crianlarich since Thursday, August 5
John Smith (84), from Nottinghamshire, has been missing from Crianlarich since Thursday, August 5

He was last seen wearing a white shirt, blue jumper, dark coloured jacket, grey trousers, white hat and grey satchel style bag.

A keen hill walker and it is believed that he was intending to walk in the area of Crianlarich and Oban.

Mr Smith’s daughter, Helen Bang, posted an online message yesterday, thanking people for all their support.

She stated: “My dad is missing on Ben Cruachan since Thursday. Mountain rescue have teams out looking – thank you for kind wishes. He was last seen on Crianlarich hotel CCTV early on Thursday morning.

“He came to visit last week. It was lovely to see him, it's been 17 months. He then set off to do some fell walking in the Highlands – Ben Cruachan and somewhere else – staying at Crianlarich.

"We tried to dissuade him as, although he is very fit and regularly does 12 mile walks around Nottingham, the mountains here are very challenging and he'd had difficulties when fell walking with my brother three years ago.

"He had to be walked off the mountain by the mountain rescue people as he was so tired. My brother and sister had also tried to talk him out of it to no avail.

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“He was supposed to check in with us each day after his walks. Apart from a very brief phone call to say he'd arrived at Crianlarich on Tuesday we've had radio silence since.

“I rang the hotel on Thursday morning – he was out but they confirmed he'd been seen on the Wednesday evening. He just didn't bother to contact us to say he was safely back from Ben Cruachan.

“I've been struggling to sleep all week imagining him lying at the bottom of a hill somewhere. I have to assume he's just not bothered keeping in touch because he doesn't like being told what to do by his children.

"I'm sad about this as he and I have always been really close. For over 20 years he was my mum's full-time carer and not able to do these walks. I don't begrudge him having fun, I just don't want him to come to any harm and Scottish mountains are very challenging.”

Police Scotland inspector Andy Angus said: “We are growing increasingly concerned for John and would urge anyone who believes they may have seen either him or his car to get in touch as soon as possible.

“Anyone who may have seen John, or who has any information on his whereabouts, is urged to contact Police Scotland via 101 quoting incident number 0922 of August 7.”

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