THE wife of a missing Midland man today sent out a plea for him to make contact as his two children prepared for a second Christmas without their dad.
Damian Tudge disappeared in November last year after he left the family home in Kidderminster in the early hours of the morning.
Police said it was out of character of him to leave and are continuing to follow up reported sighting across the country.
But his wife Jane, and two children – Jade, aged 12, and Daryll, aged 11 – now face another Christmas without knowing if he is alive or dead.
Mrs Tudge said: “If Damian is reading this I just want him to call and let someone know he’s alive.
“If he doesn’t want to come home, that’s fine. I just want him to let someone know he is all right.
“We are very worried about him.
“The kids are missing him and we would love to have him back home safe and well for Christmas.”
Mr Tudge, aged 42, who worked as a welder, went missing in the early hours of November 14 last year.
He was described as white, 5ft 7ins tall, with short dark hair, and was driving a blue Peugeot 205, registration number J221 UHP.
Sgt Anthony Quinn, from West Mercia Police, said officers were continuing their investigations but admitted none of the sightings had yet been confirmed.
The case was featured on the BBC Missing Live programme four months after the disappearance.
Background filming took place at Kidderminster police station, at Mr Tudge’s home, and on the River Severn with the Severn Area Rescue Association. Mrs Tudge and her daughter made an appeal live on the show.
There were no sightings of Mr Tudge or his vehicle leading up to the show, which police said was unusual and “very concerning”.
Appeals in the local and regional media drew a blank and the feature on national television did not give the investigation the breakthrough officers wanted.
Missing Live had an extremely high success rate in tracing missing people last year and police said they had been cautiously optimistic of some success. A total of 15 people called in claiming to have seen Mr Tudge in Bristol, the Midlands and Northern Ireland but the leads turned out to be dead ends.
* Anyone with information about Mr Tudge’s whereabouts is asked to contact Kidderminster police on 0300 333 3000 or call Crimestoppers directly and anonymously on 0800 555 111.
