NEVER LOSE HOPE YOU’LL FIND LIAM
UNCLE OF MISSING SAILOR PLEDGES SUPPORT Retired cop We know hell vanished best man’s family are going through
The uncle of a sailor who disappeared without trace in Dubai has pledged support for the fami ly of missing Liam Colgan.
Liam, 29, vanished two weeks ago during his brother’s stag weekend in Hamburg.
The search is similar to that for Royal Navy seaman Timmy MacColl, of Killin, Perthshire, who went missing in May 2012, while on a night out friends.
Timmy ’ s uncle Col i n MacColl, a retired pol ice officer, said: “When I heard Liam had gone missing, I immediately thought there were similarities to Timmy’s case. He is never far from our thoughts.”
Liam’s brother Eamonn, 33, of Broughty Ferry, Dundee, is still in Germany searching for him and has postponed his March wedding until best man Liam, of Inverness, is found.
Col in, 57, added : ” The family will be desperate for answers and won’t know which way to turn.
“I’d advise them to work closely with the police and local authorities, cooperate as best they can and never to give up hope of finding him.
Timmy was of f icial ly declared dead in 2014. Colin said his family have heard nothing from the Dubai police or Navy since.
When his nephew went missing, Colin, from Dundee, f lew to the Emirates with Timmy’s mother Sheena and launched his own search.
Colin said: “The Royal Navy seemed to have washed their hands of it. I think they saw this as bad publicity and just couldn’t wait to move on.
“We’ve not given up hope of finding out what happened to Timmy. You hope for the best but fear the worst.
“I think the case is still being kept open but I’m not aware of any new lines of inquiry.”
Timmy got a taxi back to his warship after a night out at the Rock Bottom Café but has not been seen since.
His wife Rachael gave birth to the couple’s third child Eriskay five months after he vanished.
She has since remarried but keeps in close touch with his family. It was first thought Timmy had fallen into the sea on his return to his ship at Dubai’s Port Rashid harbour. But Colin believes the mariner changed his mind when he arrived and took a taxi back into town.
Underwater hunts around Port Rashid failed to find any trace of Timmy or his phone.
Colin said: “I’ve been to the area where the ship was berthed and it would be very difficult for anyone to fall into the water there.
“I believe Timmy went back into Dubai that night but I’ve no idea where he may have gone. Something has happened from there.”
We revealed last week that bakery workers in Buxtehude, a 40-minute train journey from Hamburg, were “certain” Liam came into their shop four days after he vanished from the city.
Liam was last seen on CCTV at 2.20am on Saturday, February 10 – about an hour after he left Eamonn’s stag party in the Veermaster pub.
He was unsteady on his feet as he tried to enter a building in the Baumwall area of the German city.
The footage goes on to show Liam walking towards the nearby Michelwiese Park and is last seen heading towards the Portuguese quarter.