Daniel Entwistle

http://www.norfolk.police.uk/article.cfm?artID=1710&catID=661&bctrail=0

Seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle was last seen at 5 p.m on Saturday, 3rd May, 2003, when he went out to play on his bike.

The following are the press releases which have been issued, listed here in the order they were published:

Sunday 4th May, 2003

Concern for Missing Great Yarmouth Youngster

Norfolk Police are becoming concerned for the welfare of a seven-year-old Great Yarmouth boy who has been missing from his home since 5 p.m yesterday (3rd May).

The youngster is described as 3 ft 2 in tall, of thin build with light brown cropped hair. When last seen he was wearing a blue Addidas T-Shirt.

Further details will appear on our website as they become available.

Sunday 4th May, 2003

Seven-year-old Still Missing

Norfolk Constabulary is extremely concerned for the welfare of seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle (pictured here) who has been missing from his Great Yarmouth home since 5 p.m on Saturday 3rd May.

Daniel was last seen by his parents at their home in Copperfield Avenue, Great Yarmouth at that time. During the early evening, there were two unconfirmed sightings of Daniel. These are being followed up by officers.

A full-scale search of the area took place yesterday and is still ongoing today. This has included assistance by the Suffolk and Norfolk Police helicopters, Norfolk Police dog handlers and the Norfolk Police Diving Team.

A pedal cycle, believed to be Daniels, has been found on Trinity Square, off Southgates Road, Great Yarmouth. This is being examined by Scenes of Crime Officers.

Daniel is 3 ft 2 in tall, of thin build with light brown cropped hair. When last seen he was wearing a blue Addidas T-Shirt.

Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen Daniel or who has any information, to contact Norfolk Constabulary on 01953 424999
(or via the switchboard on 01953 424242) Daniel's mother, Paula, also appealed for help from the public at a special press conference this afternoon.

" Obviously we are very concerned over Daniel's disappearance. Extensive searches of the surrounding area are being made and we would urge anyone with information, no matter how seemingly unimportant, to contact us. Your information could prove vital," said Detective Superintendent Julian Gregory.

Monday 5th May, 2003

Search for seven-year-old boy continues

Norfolk Police have been stepping up their hunt for missing seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle.

Detective Superintendent Julian Gregory, leading the investigation, today urged anybody with information to contact the police:

"We are appealing for anyone who lives in the area, or any persons who were visiting Great Yarmouth over the bank holiday weekend, to contact the police if they think they have any information that may assist our enquiries.

"We would also ask owners of premises in the area, be it sheds or commercial premises, where Daniel may have entered and become trapped, to check these buildings.

"Additionally, any local ommercial premises with CCTV cameras are asked to contact the police, as the footage may prove crucial to our enquiries."

Daniel was last seen by his parents at his home in Copperfield Avenue, Great Yarmouth, at about 5pm on Saturday, 3rd May 2003.

Anybody with information is asked to contact Norfolk Constabulary on 01953 424999, or via the switchboard on 01953 424242.

Monday 5th May, 2003

CCTV Pictures of Missing Boy

Missing seven-year-old Great Yarmouth boy Daniel Entwistle was filmed on CCTV cameras at a local shop in the late afternoon of Saturday, 3rd May. Here are the images.

Monday 5th May, 2003

Hunt for Missing Boy Goes On

The search for seven-year-old Great Yarmouth boy Daniel Entwistle will continue into the night.

About 100 police officers have been involved in the search today and have been working alongside agencies including the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the Young Citizens' Guild and the Special Constabulary.

The present scale of the search will continue until further notice.


Monday 5th May, 2003

The following Press Release was sent out by Yarmouth Coastguard

Yarmouth Coastguard Assist Police With Search for Missing Boy

Yarmouth Coastguard are currently assisting police with the search for seven year old Daniel Entwistle who went missing on 3rd May.

The Yarmouth Coastguard Sector Manager and three Coastguard vehicles from Lowestoft, Gorleston and Winterton have been searching along the River Yare and Breydon Water from 10.45 a.m this morning. This afternoon Hunstanton RNLI Hovercraft will be brought to Great Yarmouth where it will be used to search Breydon Water at low water.

Yarmouth Coastguard Watch Manager Ray Hart said:

"The advantage of using the hovercraft over an inshore lifeboat is that the hovercraft will be able to get right into shore without beaching."

When Daniel was first reported as missing, two Coastguard teams and an inshore lifeboat searched along the seafront at Great Yarmouth and along the River Yare.

Ray Hart said:

"We are obviously very concerned for Daniel's safety. The weather for searching is good today with south westerly Force 4 winds."


For further information please contact The MCA Duty Press Officer on pager 07693 267555 The Maritime and Coastguard Agency Press Office, on: (023) 8032 9401

Press releases and further information about the Agency is available on the Web at www.mcga.gov.uk

Tuesday 6th May, 2003

Search Enters its Fourth Day

The search for missing Great Yarmouth seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle has continued throughout the morning.

Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen Daniel since his disappearance on Saturday to contact Norfolk Constabulary on 01953 424999.

Daniel is 3 ft 2 in tall, of thin build with light brown cropped hair. When last seen he was wearing a blue Addidas T-Shirt.

CCTV photographs of Daniel in a local shop are on this web site.

Call 01953 424999 if you have any information about Daniel.

Thursday 8th May, 2003

Father Makes Emotional Appeal

The father of missing seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle today faced the country's media to make an emotional plea for help to find his "special little boy".

David Entwistle, 41, made the tearful appeal at a conference at the community centre in Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth.

Accompanied by Daniel's aunt, Barbara Donnelly, 42, and grandfather Keith Dutton, 44, David said he had been searching for his son morning, noon and night.

Daniel was last seen by his parent David and Paula Entwistle at their home in Copperfield Avenue, Yarmouth at about 5 p.m on Saturday, 3rd May.

Opening the conference his grandfather urged anyone who may have been holidaying in the town on or since the Bank Holiday, to flick through their 'holiday snaps' to see if they featured Daniel.

"The police would like to know if you have been in Great Yarmouth over the Bank Holiday weekend and also this week," he said.

"If you have and have been taking photographs, not just last Saturday, but also this week, would you please flick through them and compare the pictures with those of Daniel."

A pedal cycle, believed to belong to Daniel was found on Trinity Square, off Southgates Road, Great Yarmouth.

As well as carrying out numerous land, sea and air searches, police officers have been using sonar equipment to scour the River Yare for the missing schoolboy.

The family yesterday released fresh photographs of Daniel taken at his parent's wedding last November, in the hope they may jog someone's memory.

Speaking at the conference David, said: "It is very, very unbelievable what's going on. Nobody knows what's going on in Paula's head and mine at the moment. He's our little boy and we want him back.

"I've got to be strong for Paula, she's not well at the moment and she's going through hell.

"He's a mischievous little boy, just like thousands of others across the country. He's so special, he's unbelievable, he's my little boy.

"If anybody knows anything whatsoever about what happened please let us know."

David said his family was extremely grateful for the support they have received from the local community.

Speaking about Daniel's mother Paula, Barbara, added: "All mothers will understand what she is going through, she needs to know. The hardest thing is the not knowing.

"We have to be optimistic, that's what's keeping us going really."
Anybody with information is asked to contact Norfolk Constabulary on 01953 424999, or via the switchboard on 01953 424242.

11th August, 2003

All active lines of enquiry into the disappearance of schoolboy Daniel Entwistle will be completed this week.

The enquiry will remain active for the monitoring of developments and information accordingly, but there will be no officers solely dedicated to the case.

During the enquiry the incident room has received over 1200 messages resulting in excess of 2500 actions being undertaken and 575 statements completed.

However there have been no new lines of enquiries for officers to pursue.

The family of Daniel have been informed.




A child forgotten and not worth pursuing anymore!!!

Missing son: Father tells of heartache
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Wednesday 31st Dec 2003.

THE father of missing Burnley boy Daniel Entwistle today revealed that he attempted to commit suicide following his son's disappearance and the subsequent break-up of his marriage.

David Entwistle told how the heartache of Daniel's disappearance led him to swallow a cocktail of alcohol and pills in the months after his seven-year-old son went missing from home in May this year.

He said he was only saved when a fellow tenant in the bedsit where he now lives raised the alarm.

David, 41, said: "At the time I wanted to die, but I was pleased someone helped me and I am alive now."

He also spoke of having to face his first Christmas without Daniel.

Daniel, who used to live in Peel Street, Padiham, before moving to Great Yarmouth with his family three years ago, failed to return home after going to the shops to fetch a pint of milk.

His bike was found yards from the River Yare, but despite a massive police search no trace of him has been found.

Norfolk police called off the search for the missing youngster in August, although they will still monitor developments and any new information.

David claimed the stress of his son's disappearance caused the break-up of his marriage to Daniel's mum, Paula, who has a new boyfriend and is believed to have moved back to the Burnley area with their other sons, Antony, 10, and John, two.

He recalled the happy Christmas they had all spent together just a year earlier, but said this year he had abandoned any celebrations and spent the day alone in his Great Yarmouth bedsit.

David remembers his son, Daniel, tearing open his Christmas presents and laughing with delight as he realised he had a much-wanted Sony PlayStation.

He said: "It was a happy day for the kids. I watched them having fun and Paula and I was happy. We were just like any other family and everything was just fine."

Earlier this year, David served seven days of a two-week prison sentence for flouting an injunction banning him from contacting his wife.

He also spoke of his horror at learning body parts had been found on a nearby beach, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, earlier this month.

He said: "I automatically thought it could be Daniel, but I later found out that the police thought it was a man over 40, so I knew it could not be him. If it had been Daniel it would have been closure for me. But I had just seen Paula and my other sons, so I had a lot of memories still fresh in my mind."

David has vowed to stay in Great Yarmouth until he knows what has happened to his son. "I will stay here until Daniel is found," he said.

Other family members are clinging to the hope that Daniel could one day be found alive.

Speaking from her home in Bevington Close, Burnley, his aunt, Cath Entwistle, 40, said: "There is always hope and that is what everyone is clinging to.

"Christmas is obviously a hard time for the family and although I wouldn't have spent time with Daniel over the festive season I do remember when they lived up here meeting up with him when he did his Christmas shopping.

"We will all keep our fingers crossed in the New Year for some good news."

At the height of the investigation into Daniel's disappearance, which has so far cost more than £300,000 and involved more than 100 officers, intensive searches were made of buildings and roofs in the seaside town.

Police divers used hi-tech sonar equipment to scour the riverbed, helicopter searches were conducted, and police were brought in from all over the county to follow up potential sightings.

The incident room received more than 1,200 messages, resulting in 2,500 actions by police officers with 575 statements taken.

But in August, with no clue as to his whereabouts, police had to stand down search teams.

A spokesman for Norfolk police said the book on Daniel's disappearance was not closed He said: "The file on Daniel is still open. It is an ongoing investigation. We would obviously still want to hear from anyone who has information."

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________



Poor man! This is the latest news I could find when I googled Daniel's name.....

According to the report above, "The file on Daniel is still open. It is an ongoing investigation..." - Really???? I see no new news, no updates, nothing!!!!!

How does one get in contact with the parents of the missing? I would like this family to see we still care about their son who disappeared and was completely over-shadowed by Madeleine. They are both as important as eachother!!

Fears for missing Daniel

by PETER ALLEN, Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-179631/Fears-missing-Daniel.html
Looking confident and relaxed, Daniel Entwistle walks into his local corner shop on an errand for his father.

A few minutes after these CCTV pictures were taken, he disappeared without trace.

The images now form the central part of the investigation into what has become of the seven-year-old.

Detectives in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, are becoming increasingly concerned for his safety after his bike was found near a harbour wall where there is a 15ft drop into a tidal river.

Despite theories that Daniel might be hiding or lying injured somewhere, police have not ruled out the possibility that he was abducted. The colour pictures - recorded just after 5pm on Saturday - were taken by an in-store CCTV camera at Blencowe's corner shop and by another on a wall opposite the store.

They show him walking up an aisle, out the front door, and then turning left as he swings a carrier bag.

Daniel had apparently gone to the shop at the request of his father, railwayman David Entwistle, from their nearby end-of-terrace house.

He had often run errands to Blencowe's for his parents and appears happy and self-possessed in the pictures. This time he had gone out to pick up a baby bottle for his younger brother John.

Mr Entwistle, 41, said Daniel had returned to the family home on the Barrack estate with the bottle, dropped it off in the kitchen, and then disappeared outside again to play. That was the last Mr Entwistle saw of his son.

Yesterday, as the inconsolable father searched the streets of the seaside town with his brother-in-law, police were following up several potential sightings of the boy.

Two sightings, at around 8pm on Saturday, put Daniel close to his home. Police were also studying camera footage from a further location showing a boy believed to be him.

Mr Entwistle said: "We have been looking all night and I have had no sleep for 36 hours.

We've been looking anywhere and everywhere."

Tony Blencowe, owner of the corner shop, said: "Children are always coming in and out of the shop, so we didn't think there was anything unusual about it."

Appeal: David and
Paula Entwhistle

Paula Entwistle, Daniel's 30-year-old mother, said he had been playing happily with his brother Antony, ten, earlier in the day as they had both received Beyblade spinning tops as presents.

Mrs Entwistle, who suffers from epilepsy, was feeling unwell and had gone to bed at around 5pm.

When she went back downstairs at around 7.15pm she realised Daniel was missing and at 8pm the police were called. Mrs Entwistle said: "I go through stages. One minute I'm positive and the next I'm negative.

"The bike being found by the river doesn't necessarily mean anything. He might have left it in the park and it could have been taken by someone who then dragged it away.

"Daniel was playing in the park in the afternoon. He seemed happy."

Mrs Entwistle appealed to her son: "Just come home. We both miss you and you are not in trouble."

Daniel is a pupil at Greenacre First and Middle School - opposite the corner shop - where parents were last year warned about a strange man seen around the main gates.

Neighbour and mother-of-three Justine Burgess, 30, said: "There are a lot of paedophiles around here and you can't help but worry. I don't let my seven-year-old daughter out of the house after 6pm."

Police extended the search area for Daniel to a radius of four miles from his home in Copperfield Avenue, and called in a Coastguard hovercraft to help search local waterways.

A specialist search adviser was also drafted in from the National Crime and Operations Faculty.

The unit was consulted in the hunt for the Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Cambridgeshire.

Daniel's red-and-white bike was found on Saturday night next to the three-foot high quayside wall half a mile from the family home and about a mile upstream on the River Yare from the North Sea.

There is a sheer 15ft drop into the Yare on the other side of the wall.

Detective Superintendent Julian Gregory, who is leading the search, said: "We have not ruled out any possibilities."

Keith Egleton, Daniel's headmaster, said the disappearance will be the subject of this morning's assembly. He described Daniel as a "lovely little boy" and said: "I just want him to be found safe."

Daniel is described as 3ft 2in, thin, with short light-brown hair and a pale complexion. The Entwistles moved to Norfolk from Burnley three years ago and he still has a strong northern accent.

He was wearing a blue adidas shirt, blue tracksuit bottoms and grey training shoes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-179631/Fears-missing-Daniel.html#ixzz1beRQmY2C

Daniel Entwistle
http://www.norfolk.police.uk/newsevents/coldcases/missingpersons/danielentwistle.aspx

Background

Daniel Joseph Entwistle was 7years old when he disappeared from near his home at Copperfield Ave, Great Yarmouth on Saturday 3 May 2003 (This was a May Bank Holiday weekend). His parents Paula and David Entwistle became concerned later that evening when he failed to return for tea and started to look for him, enlisting the assistance of friends and neighbours.



Original Investigation

Daniel was identified on the CCTV at Blencowes, a local convenience store nearby to his home at around 5.05pm that day.

There were other potential sightings of Daniel during that day including being with a group of other boys seen playing near to the river at Trinity Quay at around 3.30pm.

His little red BMX bike was found abandoned near to the river close to Trinity Quay in the early hours of next morning.

Despite a major police search and investigation involving many people and other agencies no trace of Daniel has ever been found. He remains a missing person to this day.

Daniel was described as being 3' 2" tall, of thin build with light brown cropped short hair. He had a pale complexion and a strong Northern accent.

Daniel was last seen wearing a blue Adidas T shirt with striped sleeves and an Adidas motif on the chest, blue tracksuit bottoms and grey coloured training shoes.



Why has this case been looked at again?

Part of the cold case team role is to review any high profile case such as Daniel’s disappearance that is suitable.



Current Progress

We have received no recent information of Daniel.

Additional Information

We continue to ask the local community for any information that can help this case.



Contact details

Senior Investigating Officer: Detective Inspector Andy Guy
Cold Case manager: Mr Tony Deacon

Contact Tel: 01953 42 4520
Contact Fax: 01953 42 4542

Email: coldcaseteam@norfolk.pnn.police.uk

Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on: 0800 555 111.

I was only thinking about this case yesterday but, as the lad's name escaped me, I couldn't check out the story. What a difference indeed in the media coverage of two children who both disappeared on 3rd May four years apart. It's when you stop to think of other cases of missing children (no government intervention, no business enterprise set up in record time with long-term plans etc etc) that you appreciate how extraordinary everything relating to that of Madeleine is.

A reminder of another missing child who disappeared on this day 11 years ago.

I remember this case very well.


2-3 months after he went missing they shelved the case.


His bike was found propped up against a wall near a river and the assumption was he fell in and drowned...end off story.


How the hell can the police assume that.

I think he was a special needs child too....poor little mite .

I have never heard that, Kitti.

Here's a link to a 10th anniversary appeal for information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-22383575