Shambolic cops do not care about us
Gary’s family appeal for help one year on
The heartbroken mum of a Celtic fan who went missing in Lanzarote has blasted “shambolic” cops a year after his disappearance.
Gary Shearer, 53, from Renfrew, vanished hours after he arrived on the island alone to celebrate St Patrick’s Day on March 16, 2023. His family say police didn’t open a missing person case until a week after the incident, while they waited to confirm Gary hadn’t returned on his booked flight to Scotland despite having no passport or belongings.
While the family organised their own search party with locals last March, not one officer attended – and it took police until June to organise the first official search.
Mum Ann McMurray will travel to Lanzarote with Gary’s sister Nikki on the anniversary of his disappearance in the hope that it might jog returning tourists’ memories.
Ann, 72, said: “We sit here every day as a family not knowing what to do. It’s like hitting your head off a brick wall.
“We don’t hear anything from the police unless we contact them. We feel badly let down by them and they don’t seem to care.
“He’s just another tourist to them but he is a human being.
“If we do get any information, it’s from members of the public. It’s been a shambles and when we see the Spanish police next, I don’t expect any answers.”
Gary checked in to his hotel in Puerto del Carmen before heading to Bar 67.
He was later picked up on CCTV unconscious in a doorway near the bar at 1.30am the next morning. Police released more footage last August, showing him outside a Spar with an unknown man but they have not been able to identify him.
Sister Debbie, 49, said: “Somebody knows something, nobody just disappears. We just want Gary back; we don’t have anywhere to remember him and haven’t even been able to put him to rest.
Policía Nacional has been contacted for comment.
We just want him back... no one just disappears sister debbie hopes for a breakthrough