Family appeal as concern grows for missing Jamie
THE parents of missing Jamie Grimwood believe he stopped to change the wheel of his car before vanishing in North Wales.
Jamie, of Runcorn, was last seen at 7.42pm on Monday, August 23, near the ATS garage on Chester Road in Flint.
His dark grey Audi was found nearby with his phone left inside, but there were no clues as to where Jamie might be going.
CCTV footage filmed earlier in the day showed Jamie in a shop in nearby Connah’s Quay. He was wearing a black top, trainers and shorts. His bank card was used to buy a bottle of water but hasn’t been used since
Jamie, aged 23, is believed to have been alone.
His parents Lee, 45, and Jacqui, 42, said Jamie’s car had a problem with the brakes and that he might have bought the water to try to cool them down.
They believe he stopped to change his wheel, which he was unable to do at first, but eventually succeeded, and that anyone who saw him working on the wheel might have information about where he went.
A large family-led search effort has been under way in the area since fatherof-one Jamie went missing, with Lee and Jacqui scouring the area “every day”, including going door to door.
The couple hope residents in and around Flint can assist the search by looking in places that might be inaccessible to visitors.
A Facebook page, “Finding Jamie Grimwood”, has also been set up to gather information and to help to coordinate tracking which areas have been searched.
It also described Jamie as “a kind, caring, amazing person” and anyone who thinks they sees him has been encouraged to approach him and ask for a picture, to either confirm it’s him or rule out anyone else.
North Wales Police issued an appeal over Jamie’s whereabouts late on August 24, reporting that officers had “concerns” for the 23-year-old, described as about 5ft 9ins tall and slim.
Jacqui said Jamie’s disappearance was out of character and “like he’s literally vanished”.
She added: “He’s never done anything like this before. No matter where he goes he always says ‘I’m going to be here’.
“His phone was left in the car. The police got all his data with his phone and nothing came back.”
Lee said: “Police have checked everything; they’ve found nothing at all.”
Describing their determined search, he said: “(We’ve searched) every day since it’s happened and we’re coming up with nothing at all.
“We’ve gone down putting posters up, we’ve done door-to-door; every possibility we could have done we’ve done. It’s coming up with nothing.
“We could do with people coming forward to say they’ve seen him changing the wheel.
“It’s a grey Audi, it’s dark grey with silver roof bars and it actually says ‘J’ on the reg as well.”
Anyone with any information can visit the Finding Jamie Grimwood page on Facebook, call Jacqui on 07703 579 566 or Lee on 07519 657 087, or North Wales Police on 101, quoting incident reference Z124541.