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Many more people went missing last year than in 2001. Gardaí need to take a fresh approach to their investigations, relatives of the missing tell Conor Lally

Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the disappearance near Dublin of Annie McCarrick. Although acres of column inches have been written about the missing young American, her family's quest to find her has come to nothing. Other missing- persons cases have also captured our imagination in recent years. Even people only loosely acqu-ainted with news of the day would know the names of Philip Cairns, Deirdre Jacob, JoJo Dullard and others. But for the vast majority of the families of "the missing", their stories rarely warrant a mention in the media.