Alex Humphrey

I haven’t written for a while, simply because there has been nothing to say. It is now almost a year since Alex disappeared and whilst we have ruled some possibilities out, we are really no nearer to knowing what happened to him. We have now, I think, come to the end of the trail and will have to accept that barring some fluke, we will never know.
Just to bring you right up-to-date. You will remember that the Panamanians had found a body back in February. We are still not sure whether it is Alex, although we think it unlikely. To give you some idea of the frustration we have been facing, I am enclosing, verbatim, the e-mail we got last Friday from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Names have been withheld ‘to protect the innocent’, but if the Panamanian officials are giving out erroneous information to the British Government, what hope do we as individuals have?
“In my last e-mail to you I said that we had been receiving conflicting information from the Panamanian authorities and that we wanted to ensure that we only pass you accurate information as far as possible.

In ****’s e-mail to you of 15 June she said that we had spoken to the Fiscal’s office and that they were waiting for the results of tests on two bodies. The Fiscal’s office said that a test has been sent to the USA.

Since then the case has been transferred to a different Prosecutor in the Fiscal’s office. This new prosecutor has told us very different information from the previous prosecutor. We now understand that there is no second body and that no tests have in fact been sent to the USA. I am very sorry if the misleading information from the Panamanian authorities has caused you additional pain.

As I explained in my e-mail of 2 July, the Panamanians would like to carry out further DNA tests with samples from other family members. They intend to write a letter to you to this effect. I am sure that the UK police would be able to help take DNA samples in the UK if requested, and send them to Panama using police channels. …. as you know, the Panamanian processes can move quite slowly. “

You will also know that we have had a private investigator, Brett, working for us since February. He has managed to establish a time line for Thursday, 13th August – the last time Alex was definitely seen. Some time back in May, he gave the police the name of the lady who was talking to Alex at the Majagua waterfall. It took them two months to get around to interviewing her, and the police say she has nothing useful to add. We are going to ask Brett to speak to her himself, but there is no reason to suppose she is involved in Alex’s disappearance: she is just the last person known to have spoken to him.
Brett has a couple of other leads to follow up, but they are tenuous to say the least. Then he too, has run out of ideas and we have run out of money.
I do not know what else to say. I certainly do not know what else to do. Alex did not evaporate in a puff of smoke. Somebody in Panama knows what happened.
August 8th would have been Alex’s 30th birthday. It is going to be a very difficult day for us, but Denver will be with Andrew and I will be with Martin and his family. If there is anyone who would have bought him a drink or sent him a gift, then I know that donations in his name to the British charity ‘Missing Abroad’, would be welcomed. You can find them at www.missingabroad.org. Without their help and support, we would not have been able to keep going as long as we have.
I’m not going to write again unless something specific happens. Thank you all for all the support you have given us at this impossible time.
Gill, Denver, Martin and Andrew Humphrey

It’s a long time since I have written or posted anything, mainly because there has been nothing to say. But as we come up to ten months since Alex disappeared, I want to bring you all up to date with what has [or hasn’t] happened. It isn’t easy writing, and it won’t be easy reading for those of you who knew Alex well, so if you want to ‘delete’ at this point, that’s fine.

In February, Martin and I went out to Panama to meet with a private investigator, Brett. You will remember that Sr Perez, the head of the Department of Interior Justice, decided that he would not invite Greater Manchester Police to Panama because he had already conducted a ‘comprehensive investigation’. Brett and the family have been through the police files and it is fairly clear why they didn’t want an outside force involved.
Suffice it to say, that of the 6 people we know Alex spoke to on the day he disappeared, the police have spoken to only two, one of whom is the owner of the hostal he stayed at. She called them! The other has given so many conflicting accounts of what he said and did, that I would have expected some sort of follow-up action, but ….. nothing.
They [the police, not the local people or the search and rescue people], seem to think that a young man travelling alone must have been there for sex or drugs or both and to use that famous English judicial phrase he was ‘asking for it’.
Brett has found and we all spoke to the young lady who runs the tourist information centre and who gave Alex advice. She confirms that he was following the recommendations in the Lonely Planet Guide. Brett also traced the two Irish back-packers who spoke with Alex in the Centre. They remember him only dimly, but it is another loose end tied up.
So we know that the last definite sighting was on Thursday 13th August at Majagua waterfall – a site described in the Lonely Planet Guide as a beauty spot, but now a hangout for druggies and prostitutes. The bar tender there remembers talking to Alex and selling him a soda. He is the guy who changes his story so regularly.
He says Alex was also talking to a young lady called Ayda. He says Alex left in a hurry. Maybe Alex found out the lady’s profession: maybe he had something else he needed to do: we don’t know. After that we simply don’t know. Brett is trying to trace Ayda. The police have made no effort to do so.
There were subsequent ‘sightings’ over the next few days, but the police dismissed these witnesses as unreliable. Brett has spoken to some of them and they remained convinced that they say a ‘dishevelled, disorientated gringo’ and they believe it was Alex. Eight months afterwards, it is difficult to know where to go with this.
I have to tell you also that on that same trip, we heard that a badly decomposed corpse had been discovered, in the general locality but not specifically where Alex was supposed to have been. I am not going to go into detail. On February 15th, I gave a blood sample to allow DNA comparison. Three and a half months later, we are still waiting for a result.
The British Ambassador is helping with this aspect. He has sent a ‘diplomatic note’ to the Panamanian Foreign Ministry and has promised to follow up. Whether or not it is Alex, it was clearly murder. You would think that the police might be following this up?
I’m sorry. I did warn you this might not be easy to read.
To those of you who tell us you admire the way we are coping, I have to say that you are really complimenting us on our acting skills. We are not coping: I don’t think anybody could. We are finding the strength to go on with day-to-day life – what else can we do? But Denver, Martin, Andrew and I have lost not just a son and a brother, but also a friend. There is a hole in my heart and in my life that is not going to go away anytime soon.
Thank you all once again for your kindness and your support. We are going to need it for a while yet!

Gill

As I said on facebook, we heard yesterday that the Panamanian Government has refused to issue an invitation to the British police to go to Panama to collect evidence for a UK inquest. For what it’s worth, the invitation was not the responsibility of Interpol, despite what everyone from Lady Kinnock down was telling us. Nor was it the responsibility of the Chancellery as Sr Garcia told us. It was Sr Javier Carrillo – you remember him: the one with the filter on his e-mail so nothing we sent got through.

His reasons: that they have already undertaken a ‘comprehensive investigation’ and since there is currently no investigation [they won’t continue because we cannot prove that a crime has been committed (I know, they can’t prove that a crime hasn’t been committed, but that’s the way it goes), there is nothing for the British police to assist with.
5 months totally wasted, when we could have had a Private Investigator filling in the gaps in the ‘comprehensive investigation’. Nothing done in all that time, because we thought that the police were going out there. All that time wasted because it takes 5 months for the Panamanian Government to make and communicate their decision. Alex was a human being: he deserved better.
There’s nothing we can do, but if you can afford the time and the price of a stamp, you could make your feelings known to the Panamanian Ambassador in London – Sr. Gilberto Arias, Panama House, 40 Hertford Street, London W1J 7SH. It won’t change their minds – too much face would be lost – but it might make you feel better, and it would certainly make me feel better.

All I can say is that we feel Alex has been completely betrayed by the system. What seemed like a promising collaboration between two local police forces pooling their expertise, has been sabotaged by desk-bound diplomats. We tried, but they beat us.
Gill

I got back on Thursday morning and seem to take longer to get over the jet lag each time!  Old age creeping up, I guess.

Nothing really new to report.  We confirmed that Alex had been seen at a local ‘beauty spot’ – well that’s how it’s listed in the Lonely Planet Guide, but apparently it’s now a hang out for druggies and prostitutes, as well as being used by families as a nice place to swim when it’s hot.  Alex had been there on Thursday afternoon [13th] and spoken to a woman there – it was she the TV station later dubbed a prostitute.  Brett hasn’t been able to find her yet but is going back next week.  Maybe she knows where he was proposing to go next.

We also have the names of a couple of Irish guys he met in the Information Centre.  We are following up on that one.

Also Brett is going to check out a couple of other reported sightings but they’re are a long shot.

More realistically, I have left a blood sample for comparison purposes if the authorities should find anyone.

Having the bilingual PI in charge meant we got a lot more done, but we also checked in with the authorities, all of whom are still very aware of the case – particularly the search and rescue people because he is the only one they haven’t found.  In Boquete, everyone was really helpful.  Left money from the Desperately Seeking Alex event at the orphanage.  Heart-rending.  Will have to find a way of sending more.

Got started on the police visit as soon as I got back, but am losing all hope of that ever happening.  Central government in Panama is just impossible to penetrate.  They don’t use electronic communication much and unless you are actually standing right in front of them ……………  May ask your help in pressuring British Ambassador in Panama and Panamanian Ambassador in London.  Will send details if we decide that’s the way to go.

Will keep in touch

Gill