Someone Must Know by cold case investigator Dave Grimstead

An unnamed woman leaps to her death. A man dies with only a scrap of paper in his pocket. Who were they? Someone Must Know details cold case investigator Dave Grimstead's quest to find out.

Cold cases have become ubiquitous in TV dramas, from Waking the Dead, through Unforgotten, to Department Q.

These series present investigations into long-unsolved murders or disappearances as tense, suspenseful dramas, narratives with a beginning, a middle and an end. (And often a maverick cop whose almost psychic insight somehow prevents him from being jailed for perverting the course of justice.)

Some of these, along with true crime books, are excellent accounts of how the mysteries cold cases present are investigated, in order to give closure. Others appeal to the prurience many of these attract.

But what is the reality of cold cases? Of people who have gone missing and never reappeared, or who have died but have never been identified? Whose loved ones, if they have them, can never grieve for them and are left never knowing?

High profile incidents like those of Suzy Lamplugh, Madeleine McCann and Ben Needham, people who vanished without trace, are revisited again and again, often in ways that must increase the pain and distress felt by families. But there are many, many others whose stories may never be told.

In his book, Dave Grimstead looks at these cases – and at the extraordinary organisation he established to work on incidents involving missing persons and unidentified bodies that police forces no longer have the resources to pursue.

Grimstead himself was a police officer for 40 years, ending his career in the National Crime Agency. In retirement, he established the organisation Locate International, to try and find the missing and give identities to the dead. The group is staffed by volunteers whose abilities range from forensic specialists to people with no investigative experience at all.

Grimstead tells of the organisation’s work on the basis of a small number of cases that span decades – and sometimes international borders.

The nature of the work means success is elusive. When the dead person has no name, sometimes no face, no possessions, no place of origin, where do you start? For this reason, this book is not the standard cold cases narrative, true or fictional.

In many of the incidents described, there is only the search. The outcome remains elusive: a story with a middle, but no beginning, and no end. People found dead on the streets are often dismissed as vagrants, and the sad fact is, few people care.

This is demonstrated by the story of ‘Kensington Man’ – the body of a young man found in a west London mews in the winter of 1994, reported at the time as a mystery vagrant who had frozen to death unnoticed.

The only clue was a scrap of paper torn from a betting slip, found in his pocket. It had a name written on it: Vincent, and a surname that wasn’t fully legible. The police at the time never established his correct name, meaning they were searching for the wrong person. This has happened in other cases too.

In this event, dogged investigation by Locate International finally revealed the identity of the dead man, and the story of how he became separated from his friends and family.

The satisfaction of a conclusion is marred by the fact it took so long. His parents died without ever knowing what happened to their son, but Vincent Akpiroroh had his identity returned to him: an acknowledgement that he had lived.

Grimstead takes us through other cases in similar detail. The story of Wembley Point Woman is as tragic as that of Akpiroroh.

She leapt from the 21st floor of the Wembley Point tower block. Several people saw her jump and were traumatised. She had talked to people on her way to the café from which she jumped – clearly distressed – and left an enigmatic set of possessions on the table where she had been sitting. For 16 years, she remained unidentified.

The investigation is detailed and thorough, and leads the team to the name of a trafficked woman. But this is a false lead, and in the end, despite exhaustive work, the identity of Wembley Point Woman, her origins and her story, remain unknown.

This is a book that explores the meaning of identity – why does it matter that the missing be found, the anonymous dead named? Grimstead believes it is important we give them back their names, rescue them from the distance of time, recognise that they lived and give some closure to their loved ones.

Someone Must Know is not for those who want loose ends neatly tied up, who want tension and suspense as they follow a successful investigation to its conclusion. In real life, some of these investigations end as they began, with a question mark.

Where the team is successful, there is often no one left who knew the person, no close family of friends. Where family are still looking, the investigations may raise hopes that are ultimately dashed.

All profits from the book will go to support Locate International’s work. This is made clear, but it means this is not an independent journalist’s account: it’s more of an advocacy for the organisation.

Despite this, Grimstead’s low-key narrative and his honesty about the success or otherwise of their investigations show the tragedy of the missing far more effectively than a more deliberately emotional account. This is not a book for the ‘tragedy trollers’. What is very clear to the reader is this: Dave Grimstead cares.