Missing Ellen Coss Brown

Date: 11/1/2011
PRESS RELEASE – OCTOBER 30 2011

The third of November this year marks the twelfth anniversary of the date on which Ellen Coss went missing. Ellen went missing as she was returning to her home in Dublin from England and was travelling via Holyhead.

Since the date Ellen went missing her brother, Tom Brown, has put a huge amount of effort into finding her – all to no avail. What Tom did find was that there are many dedicated people willing to help search for missing people, and to help the families of missing people, but official bodies, such as the Garda missing persons’ unit, who are dedicated to the task of locating missing people and offering support to their families are underfunded and disorganised. This lack of resources applies not only when adults go missing, but also when a child goes missing.

The harmonised 116 000 number for hot-lines for missing children was launched by the European Commission in February 2007. This number has been reserved by the European Commission since 2007 for the entire EU, and while the Commission has called on member states to get it up and running, Ireland still has not achieved this.

When a child goes missing, it is enormously stressful, not only to the child, but also to the child’s parents, siblings and family. It seems that the Irish government is satisfied to let this suffering take place rather than pay a modest amount of money to set up a hotline which would help alleviate some of the pain.

Tom had put a lot of effort into trying to find his sister, but much of the effort he expended was not involved directly with the search, it involved trying to find organisations and individuals that could help him in his quest. He has also had to struggle to try to get the Irish government to carry out what is one of its most basic functions – supporting some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Tom is travelling to Holyhead and will be spending the days surrounding the anniversary of his sister’s disappearance again seeking any information about her disappearance. He asks that anyone who may have any information about her should contact him.