Disappearance of Alex Sloley

Last updated

Alex Sloley
Born
Alexander Sloley

(1991-08-04)4 August 1991
Disappeared2 August 2008 (aged 16)
Islington, London, England
Status Missing for 15 years, 6 months and 24 days
NationalityBritish
Occupation Accountancy student

Alexander Sloley (born 4 August 1991) was a British boy who disappeared without a trace on 2 August 2008 in Edmonton, north London, England, when he was 16. [1] No evidence of his fate has been found, [2] and his current whereabouts remain unknown.

Contents

Background

Sloley went by the nickname "Gog". [3] He had studied at the Islington Arts and Media School in north London and was attending City and Islington College. [4]

Sloley disappeared two days before his 17th birthday. [5] [1] Sloley was described as someone who dressed smartly and was not scruffy. [6] He liked football and eating traditional West Indian food such as fried plantain, dumplings and porridge. [7]

His parents were separated, and he had three sisters: Tasha, Tazrah and Lattina. [8] Sloley's father, Christopher, died in 2014 without learning of his son's fate. [7]

Disappearance

Sloley had been staying at a friend's house in Edmonton, north London. He left there around noon on 2 August 2008 to return home for his birthday, but never arrived. [8] When he disappeared he had little money and no change of clothes. [1] Sloley did not have his passport with him. [7] Sloley had a mobile phone with him but it stopped connecting when he went missing. [7] His disappearance was uncharacteristic. [2]

Police found nothing to indicate where Sloley may have gone. [3] "It's like he disappeared off the face of the planet," one officer said in 2012. [4] No trace of Sloley was ever recovered from CCTV footage. [2]

Subsequent investigation

In September 2009 a possible sighting was reported in Ilford, east London, but has never been confirmed. [3] In October 2009 the charity Missing People and supermarket Iceland arranged for Sloley's story and photo to appear on milk cartons. [3] Sloley's was one of the first cases to be publicised in such a manner, and he was featured on nearly 13.5 million milk cartons. [9]

In July 2015, Sloley's mother Nerissa Tivy was surprised to learn that police had received numerous reports of sightings in 2009. Tivy stated that she had met with police a number of times and they had never told her about this list. [10]

In September 2017 Mick Neville, retired head of the Metropolitan Police's Central Images Unit, drew comparisons between Sloley's disappearance and that of another bright maths student who disappeared without a trace in London. [11] Andrew Gosden was 14 when he disappeared in 2007, less than a year before Sloley. [11] Gosden's last known location was King's Cross, and when Sloley disappeared he was thought to have been on his way to Islington, which is two miles from King's Cross. [11] "It raises the question on whether there is a serial killer on the prowl? ...the potential links between these cases need to be recognised," said Neville. [11]

In September 2019, the Metropolitan Police released an updated e-fit depicting Sloley as he may have looked at that time. [6] It was reported that there had been no use of Sloley's national insurance, bank account or passport in the intervening 11 years. [6] [7] Detective Constable Tom Boom of the Missing Persons Unit stated that there was no evidence of harm but the case had gone cold and there were no major leads. [7]

Media

In 2023 in August he was the subject of a three episode podcast Where is Alex? and in November he featured in episode 4 of Vanished series 2.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Hodgkin, Emily (11 September 2015). "Police search for teen missing from Finsbury Park for seven years". Islington Gazette. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Renewed appeal into disappearance of teenager". Mynewsdesk. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gruner, Peter (25 September 2009). "Islington News: Alexander Sloley". thecnj.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 Couvée, Koos (30 June 2017). "'Someone, somewhere knows something about missing Alex'". Camden New Journal. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  5. ↑ "Help us find Alexander Sloley". missingpeople.org.uk. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 "New e-fit of missing teen issued 11 years on". bbc.com. 13 September 2019. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Finch, Emily (20 September 2019). "A decade on, mum's plea to find missing Alex". Camden New Journal. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Alexander Sloley's mother hopes to stage event highlighting plight of missing children". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Randall, David (11 October 2009). "The missing: Each year, 275,000 Britons disappear". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  10. ↑ Cooper, Joe (25 September 2015). "Holloway mum's fury after learning of 10 sightings of her missing teenage son". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  11. 1 2 3 4 McMahon, James (30 August 2018). "The Strange Disappearance of Andrew Gosden". Vice. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
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