Pretty well everyone in Bristol knows who DJ Derek is. Derek Serpell-Morris is a local music legend. I have never seen him perform, but I know enough people who have and he is a much-loved figure. More importantly, he is a much-loved family member and he is still missing, as he has been for a month. With no sightings since he left the Criterion pub on 10 July, with no activity in his bank account, people are fearing the worst. His family say they are “giving up on getting good news”. It’s all very sad.
Derek is no spring chicken. He’s 73, but apparently in good health. What could have happened to him after he left the pub? The police have assigned a team to investigate Derek’s disappearance. They have been ploughing through endless hours of CCTV footage, they have followed all manner of leads which turned out to be dead ends, they have extensively searched certain places. And the outcome? Nothing.
The police need a break, the family, who must be desperate, need some news, any news. All of us have a role to play with regard to missing persons. We all need to be on the look out for people like Derek, to have a cursory check in quiet areas not normally inhabited or visited by all that many people. The likelihood is we will find nothing, but the minuscule possibility is we might find a clue, about Derek, about anyone who has gone missing.
If you know anything, no matter how insignificant it might seem to you, then call the police on 101, quoting the reference number MP3388/15.
