Ben Thornbury, 19, aids in missing person cases by creating posters and offering families advice, aiming to improve police responses.
A 19 year old is helping families by creating missing person posters, raising awareness, and pushing for police reform in the UK.
Teen Dedicates Time to Finding UK’s Missing, Seeks Police Changes
Ben, 19, is from Wiltshire. He started a Facebook group in 2023 after seeing many teens disappear near him. The group is called “Missing People – Lost and Loved.” Ben used billboard ads for missing people and once spent £500 of his own money for a campaign in Bristol.
Ben works part-time at a store while helping his community. He organizes cleanups, fixes potholes, and checks missing person posts. He makes free posters and gives advice to families.
He helped in important missing person cases. In 2023, he made a Facebook group with 30,000 members. They searched for Nicola Bulley, a missing mom. Ben also created posters for Joseph Bellamy, an 18-year-old who went missing and whose body police found in March in South Wales in 2024.
Ben started a petition to get police to review missing person cases. He wants to help families get answers and hopes to bring his idea to Downing Street. He also wants to create more awareness and help reunite people. Other groups exist to help get the message out to the public, he mentioned.
About 170,000 people go missing each year, based on UK police data. The National Crime Agency has a Missing Persons Unit, which keeps track. Ben started helping two years ago and noticed many local people were missing, mostly teenagers. He knew posters were important and he could create them well.
Ben started his Facebook group in 2023. It is a place to share details about missing people, including descriptions and last known locations, indicating who to contact if seen. He checks social media often, looking for missing people Facebook groups. He contacts the families of the missing, asking for a police reference number to verify the case.
He offers advice and a free poster. They give him a photo and details, which he puts on the group’s website and shares on Facebook. He also sends the poster to the family.
Ben’s Facebook group has over 5,000 members now. He works with other group founders to reunite missing people, and they help each other a lot. He got involved in many big cases, including creating a Facebook group for Nicola Bulley that helped people find her. She went missing in Lancashire, and her body was found in February 2023.
The group had almost 30,000 members at one point, and people organized searches through it. Then, Ben made posters for Joseph Bellamy, the missing teen whose body police found. Ben said the case was sad and he feels for the family. While some cases end badly, he likes when people are found. A lost grandson got found through publicity.
Ben has put posters on billboards before, including one in London for a missing boy. That boy was found afterward, inspiring him to continue his work. This year, Ben started a petition to get police to review missing person cases. He has many signatures so far and thinks families need more police support.
Families feel hopeless because they do not get enough answers, he said. Ben also mentioned poor communication between police areas. Families often complain to Ben about the delay in CCTV footage release, which can make it harder to find people. Ben wants to change all of this.
Ben said he is pushing for change and will get his MP involved soon. He will talk to the people in charge and hopes to affect the process. Ben wants to meet more families soon and will establish a registered charity. Most of his work happens online currently, as he uses texts, messages, and emails to assist.
A police chief said officers work hard on these cases to protect people from harm. They assess risk and search for people, thinking about why someone is missing. Police aim to balance safety and privacy, knowing it is hard for families. Investigations can always improve, she noted. A policing group works to improve responses.
Ben, 19, is from Wiltshire. He started a Facebook group in 2023 after seeing many teens disappear near him. The group is called “Missing People – Lost and Loved.” Ben used billboard ads for missing people and once spent £500 of his own money for a campaign in Bristol.
Ben works part-time at a store while helping his community. He organizes cleanups, fixes potholes, and checks missing person posts. He makes free posters and gives advice to families.
He helped in important missing person cases. In 2023, he made a Facebook group with 30,000 members. They searched for Nicola Bulley, a missing mom. Ben also created posters for Joseph Bellamy, an 18-year-old who went missing and whose body police found in March in South Wales in 2024.
Ben started a petition to get police to review missing person cases. He wants to help families get answers and hopes to bring his idea to Downing Street. He also wants to create more awareness and help reunite people. Other groups exist to help get the message out to the public, he mentioned.
About 170,000 people go missing each year, based on UK police data. The National Crime Agency has a Missing Persons Unit, which keeps track. Ben started helping two years ago and noticed many local people were missing, mostly teenagers. He knew posters were important and he could create them well.
Ben started his Facebook group in 2023. It is a place to share details about missing people, including descriptions and last known locations, indicating who to contact if seen. He checks social media often, looking for missing people Facebook groups. He contacts the families of the missing, asking for a police reference number to verify the case.
He offers advice and a free poster. They give him a photo and details, which he puts on the group’s website and shares on Facebook. He also sends the poster to the family.
Ben’s Facebook group has over 5,000 members now. He works with other group founders to reunite missing people, and they help each other a lot. He got involved in many big cases, including creating a Facebook group for Nicola Bulley that helped people find her. She went missing in Lancashire, and her body was found in February 2023.
The group had almost 30,000 members at one point, and people organized searches through it. Then, Ben made posters for Joseph Bellamy, the missing teen whose body police found. Ben said the case was sad and he feels for the family. While some cases end badly, he likes when people are found. A lost grandson got found through publicity.
Ben has put posters on billboards before, including one in London for a missing boy. That boy was found afterward, inspiring him to continue his work. This year, Ben started a petition to get police to review missing person cases. He has many signatures so far and thinks families need more police support.
Families feel hopeless because they do not get enough answers, he said. Ben also mentioned poor communication between police areas. Families often complain to Ben about the delay in CCTV footage release, which can make it harder to find people. Ben wants to change all of this.
Ben said he is pushing for change and will get his MP involved soon. He will talk to the people in charge and hopes to affect the process. Ben wants to meet more families soon and will establish a registered charity. Most of his work happens online currently, as he uses texts, messages, and emails to assist.
A police chief said officers work hard on these cases to protect people from harm. They assess risk and search for people, thinking about why someone is missing. Police aim to balance safety and privacy, knowing it is hard for families. Investigations can always improve, she noted. A policing group works to improve responses.