Mystery deepens as holidaymaker vanishes in Spain after missing flight home for Christmas
John Hardy, known as John George, was due to fly home to Belfast to spend Christmas with his two children but he never showed up to his flight from Alicante, Spain - his family believe he is dead.
An urgent search is underway in Spain for a Belfast dad who went missing on holiday. The alarm was raised for the whereabouts of John Hardy, also known as John George, after he missed his flight home to to spend Christmas with his two children.
He had flown to Alicante three weeks ago to visit friends and phoned pals to say he heading on a flight home to Belfast on December 18, but never made it. His mobile phone has been off since December 14, which has prompted his family to travel to the holiday hotspot in search of him.
His loved ones say the circumstances surrounding his disappearance are concerning, as during the last phone call he made home, he was reportedly "distressed". They are deeply worried and currently conducting daily searches in the Spanish resort.
The family are also concerned that police in Spain could be missing vital evidence as John’s disappearance is being treated as a missing person investigation.
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John's devastated younger brother Darren says the family won't rest until John is brought home. Speaking to Belfast Live from Alicante on Saturday, he said the family has been "ripped to pieces".
Darren said: “We very much stuck in limbo but a lot of people have come from Belfast to help us look for John and there's more coming every day. The support from Belfast has been unbelievable and there's about 40 of us now involved in the search. Every local out here in Spain has been supporting us too. They've been out with dogs and drones helping us look.
"My mum and dad are out here together with my sisters and partners and John's partner. But we're having to scour through thousands of acres every day. Christmas Eve and Day was spent searching fields and today we're down at the beach and marina area. We're searching from morning to night and there's been no let up at all since we got over here this week.”
Darren added: “As a family, we will not stop until we find him but at the minute we've very little to go on. We're praying for someone to come forward anonymously and give us a bit of information so that we can recover his body and get him home.
“We know John is dead and not missing so we just need to get him back. There's a £30,000 (€36,177) reward from family and friends for any information that leads us to him so we want somebody to come forward from any of his friends. We just need this nightmare to end and we're doing everything in our power to find him.
“Our mum has had two strokes and dad has had a heart attack but they are in their 50s and running around Spain looking for John. Mum is climbing mountains, crawling down caves and knocking doors in. We're just devastated and heartbroken and John has two young kids at home who just want their daddy back.
“We're hugely grateful for all the support both out here in Spain and back in Belfast. Everyone has been fantastic but right now we just need some vital information or tip off to get John's body back. This can all stop now and be over but it won't until we get John back. We will fight every day and we have to move to Spain, we will move to Spain. But we will not be leaving Spain without John's body.”
The family has launched a GoFundMe page to help raise money towards the search, which already raised more than £19,000 (€23,000) so far. You can donate here.
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