Scottish clue in missing Steven Cooper hunt

Jul 21 2008 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

GOLCAR dad Steven Cooper drove up to Scotland after celebrating his 47th birthday – and then vanished into thin air.

Since the former Territorial Army soldier left his family home in Scar Lane on January 21 there have been no confirmed sightings of him at all.

And the leader of a mountain rescue team that searched for him for several weeks has revealed it is the first time in his 30-year search and rescue career he has failed to find a missing person in his area.

The leader of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, Willie Anderson, said: “We usually find the person we are looking for even if it takes months – but we have found absolutely no trace of Steven. It’s very unusual and a real mystery.’’

Calls to the national Missing People charity have claimed to have seen Steven in places as diverse as France, Spain and Dewsbury – but every lead has ended in total frustration for his desperately worried family.

One woman was convinced she had seen him in a supermarket at Fort William and the CCTV images of the man were retrieved and sent down to West Yorkshire.

But one look at them by his family quickly confirmed it was not Steven.

There have also been crank calls that led to more misery.

But the bottom line is that after Steven parked his Ford Focus car on the A86 near the Inverness village of Moy not far from Fort William he vanished without any trace at all.

Receipts in the car indicate that he had taken a strange route there up the A1 and then criss-crossed Scotland. The journey was around 300 miles.

But there is nothing at all to indicate why Steven should have left home and driven so far – or any clues to his state of mind.

He left everything behind – his mobile phone, passport, wallet, credit cards and cash. There was even half a tank of petrol still in the car when he abandoned it.

It was found close to Loch Laggan, 20 miles north-east of Fort William.

Sonar searches of the deep water and a huge land search of the area followed – including mountain rescue teams and an RAF helicopter – but failed to find any trace of him.

But it is desolate and lonely there.

Steven’s mum, Margaret, said: “You drive for miles and miles through the countryside, only seeing the odd white cottage here and there. It’s hard to grasp just how big the countryside is up there.”

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