Massive search for missing family man

18/11/2008 00:00

MORE than 100 people, a combination of volunteers, members of Civil Defence groups from right round Majorca, and both Local and National Police were searching the outskirts of the town of Porto Cristo in the district of Manacor yesterday, to try and find 51-year-old Manuel Perez, a local man who has not been seen for nearly a month-and-a-half..

A spokesman for Manacor's Civil Defence group said that specialist trackers had been called in and the regional Emergency department has put a helicopter at the disposal of searchers. The family of Perez, a hotel worker, explained that they had not raised an immediate alarm because he was a frequent excursionist and spent time away from home visiting friends. Nevertheless, when an unusually long period of not hearing from him for several days had passed, the family alerted the police. His children, friends and associates were soon following every possible lead they could think of to trace his whereabouts. Desperation and loss of hope is setting in, however, said one source close to the family as Perez, a tall and slender redhead, is diabetic and he had not taken any medicine with him when he left home.