Fears grow for Scottish kayaker who vanished off Costa Blanca
THE family of a Scot last seen a week ago as he went kayaking in Spain have made a desperate appeal for help to find him.
Kenny McPherson’s worried family fear he may have been carried out to sea by strong currents and have launched social media appeals for information on the 62-year-old.
The offshore survey engineer flew to Spain last month from his home in Aberdeen to spend a few weeks at his holiday home near the resort of Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca, where he was last seen.
He vanished last Saturday morning. His wife, Alexandra Mitchell, and his stepchildren, Anna Mitchell, 22, and Alexander, 27, have now flown to the Costa Blanca to help in the search. Worried Anna said: ‘We’re very concerned for my stepdad’s well-being – he’s been missing for a week.
‘We’ve discounted this being a voluntary disappearance. There’s no reason why he would have wanted to go missing.
‘When we got flights over and arrived at the house, we found everything had been left just as if he had popped out to the shops.
‘My mum said he had kayaked when they had been abroad with a tutor but on this particular occasion he had decided he wanted to do a bit by himself.
‘He had purchased a kayak in Spain and been out on the Friday before he went missing down the road from where he was last seen.
‘We were unaware he was going to go out on the Saturday again. Neighbours saw him leave with the distinctive lime green kayak early in the morning.
‘His car, which is a Spanish-plated metallic blue Skoda Fabia, was left at Torrevieja Marina.’
The search for the missing engineer is being led by the local Civil Guard force. They could not be reached for comment last night. Ms Mitchell said: ‘The police have organised land, sea and air searches but there’s been nothing so far.
‘He apparently talked about wanting to go fishing in the kayak to some neighbours so he could have gone further out to sea than he had on the Friday.
‘The weather conditions early in the morning last Saturday were good but we were told it got bad later in the day – the wind speed picked up around midday and the sea turned quite choppy.
‘Some people we talked to said they had seen a similar kayak to the one my stepdad went out in bobbing around in the marina close to the beach two days ago but we went out yesterday and it’s not been seen since.’
The family appealed for information, describing Mr McPherson as 5ft 11in, medium build with a white goatee beard and grey-white hair.