The family of a Derry pensioner missing for more than five months have spoken about their ongoing pain at his disappearance.
Seventy-one-year-old John Concannon (pictured), who suffers from dementia, was last seen on November 10 last year.
The last sighting of him was as he got off a bus at Lenamore Road close to the Derry-Donegal border.
It is believed he had boarded the wrong bus from the city centre to get home.
Since his disappearance, there have been extensive searches but no trace of him has been found
Robert Concannon, John’s brother, said the uncertainty of his brother’s whereabouts has been a huge stress on the entire family.
“The Community Search and Rescue Team have been carrying out ongoing searches during the week and working away,” he said.
“People don’t really understand the stress on you, it’s something else. It runs your health down.
“We have tried everything, we even tried a psychic to see where he might be but come back with nothing.
“We are just grasping at straws,” he said.
George Cairns is a local community worker who has been helping to co-ordinate the searches.
“We are five months into this search now and The Community Search and Rescue Team will be out again this week and over the weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” said Mr Cairns.
“We will be meeting the family to let them know where we are with the search.
“This is a prolonged search and any leads we had have now defaulted but we are out most weekends.”
Mr Cairns said the search is now more intensive and more suited to those with experience of similar situations.
However, he said the help the local community gave in the past was much-needed at that time and appreciated deeply by the family.
“When the public helped that was what we needed at the time and the family respected that and had great praise for the community, who came out in numbers of up to 250 at some searches,” he said.
“It was hard work and people helped for up to six or seven weeks.”
Mr Cairns said the search for John would continue and help from Foyle Search and Rescue was available also and much appreciated.
“We just want to let the family know that we are co-ordinating everything and we will not give up. We are still looking for John,” he said.
He concluded: “We want to give the family hope that we will find him.”
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