Pain of a missing child lasts forever

The spectre of Veronique Adams — abducted when she was 11 months old by a nanny and missing for 20 years — has haunted Fanie van Deventer, the policeman who could never close her case.

The veteran cop, who has investigated more than 500 missing persons cases, is the custodian of thousands of files at the police’s missing persons bureau.

“There are a lot of cases that bother me. Veronique’s father passed away and I believe it was because of grief. I share in that grief,” he said. “For every child you find, there is closure for these people, but it doesn’t make up for those you don’t.”

Van Deventer helped establish the bureau, a database of the country’s 31,843 lost people.

“We perform a watchdog function, making sure everything is in order on our system. If a child goes missing in Durban, the details will be available across the country in the fastest time possible.

“With every case over the years we have looked at how we can do better, and we’re on the brink of launching a project that will change the way we search for missing kids,” he said.