"My Brother Vanished After a Dating App Encounter—I'm Convinced He Was Murdered, But the Police Won't Take Me Seriously"

THE sister of a man who vanished without a trace nearly nine years ago is convinced he was murdered.

Suzy Maltwood says her brother Shaune Jones one day simply disappeared from Eltham, south London, in 2017 – and has accused cops of not taking the search seriously enough until it was too late.

Suzy Maltwood is desperate for answers after her brother vanished nearly nine years agoCredit: Paul Edwards Shaune Jones disappeared in 2017 without a traceCredit: Supplied Suzy last saw Shaune as he prepared to go on a dateCredit: Supplied

The last time Suzy, 44, spoke to dad-of-five Shaune, who will be 54 if still alive, he was planning to meet with someone from app Plenty of Fish (PoF) – and she even helped him pick his outfit.

When, she claims, showed little interest in the case, she even began her own , including speaking to people at a caravan site where her brother had sold a van prior to going missing.

In an incident which Suzy fears could be linked to Shaune’s disappearance, some months before, he’d been robbed of his takings from a sunbed shop he owned while heading to the bank – and the thieves also took his wedding ring.

Suzy, one of five siblings, told The Sun: “When we initially reported Shaune missing the police wouldn’t accept it.”

She added: “I think someone’s had him done away with.”

She said it was months before they opened an investigation – and she has since submitted multiple complaints.

“All they found out during the major investigation was the information I’d already given them right from the start,” Suzy explained.

“They haven’t even given me a definitive date of when he went missing, who he was with, what time it was, where he left, nothing – we got absolutely zero from them because they say, as he’s an adult they can’t tell us anything due to data protection.

“Even though he’s a vulnerable , because he’s borderline schizophrenic.”

Suzy said Shaune often struggled with his mental and would occasionally go AWOL for long periods, but would still give updates to his family.

He had moved in with a friend in late 2016, and Suzy had taken some time off work to care for him.

“One day he just wasn’t there anymore,” she said.

“The last time I spoke to him was February 2017, and at that point he was chatting to someone on a dating site.

“I’d gone back to work, because I’d spent the last three months sitting with him.

“The last we heard he’d gone on a date, towards the end of February.”

Suzy, however, didn’t report him missing to police until around the following November.

Suzy has criticised the police for their handling of the caseCredit: Paul Edwards She is convinced Shaune has been murderedCredit: Paul Edwards Suzy has launched her own investigation into what happened to her brotherCredit: Supplied

“The situation with him going away and coming back was normal – but suddenly months had gone by and there was no word at all,” she explained.

“I ain’t going to paint him as something he’s not. We did have periods of time where he’d disappear – but we knew something wasn’t right.”

Suzy said police, after a long delay, eventually carried out a two-year probe, from around a year after she first reported Shaune missing, but “came back with nothing”.

She said: “They did work hard at the beginning, they did make loads of phone calls, they interviewed lots of people.

“But because they left it so long all traces were gone.

“Their investigation showed nothing untoward had happened, so they shut it down.”

During her own investigation, Suzy was able to track Shaune to Shurland Dale Park on the Isle of Sheppey, , in May 2017, where he’d gone to sell a van.

“The people who saw Shaune on that day I’ve had direct contact with,” she said.

“They said Shaune was unwell and they’d never seen him in that state before. They’d known him a lot of years.”

Police later told her Shaune had committed a road traffic offence in the area around the same time.

Suzy said Shaune would often disappear for weeks at a timeCredit: Paul Edwards The family have been working alongside charity Missing PeopleCredit: Paul Edwards Shaune had distinctive tattoos on his handsCredit: Supplied

“That’s what I work by,” she said. “We know 100 percent he was in the area, but that’s why it’s confusing because they’ve got nothing definitive to give me.”

Police were also able to say Shaune had gone to a appointment around the time he disappeared and are understood to be working off the date of disappearance being June 27 2017.

“We don’t know exactly when it was, or who it was with,” said Suzy.

She does not believe Shaune left the country or attempted to start a new life elsewhere in the UK.

“Shaune wasn’t the type of the person, due to his disabilities and other illnesses, his severe dyslexia, to do that,” she explained.

“He needed someone there to support him all the time. He wouldn’t have been able to just up and disappear, he wouldn’t have the mental capacity to do it.”

He also suffered with polyps, which if ruptured would need emergency surgery, and extremely poor eyesight.

Police told her there was no trace of him using his passport to leave the country – however, told her they don’t necessarily check all passengers using the ferries.

“If they’d just investigated properly when I first approached them, we might have got somewhere,” she continued.

“Because they left it almost three years into him going missing, before they actually started doing anything, all those traces were gone.”

Suzy went on to say: “We’re quite spiritual. My little girl, she’s only six, she’s not met Shaune, but he visits her quite a lot.

“And she comes and tells me conversations she has quite a lot.

“Last weekend she came to me in tears and I said ‘what’s the matter, darling?’

“She said ‘I can’t feel him anymore. Shaune he’s gone, he’s gone.’

“She’s quite tearful with that.”

Shaune is described as having distinguishable on both his hands, as well as distinctive scarring from being burned as a teenager.

Suzy described the scarring as going from “his back just under shoulder blade to his bum”.

She added he also has no finger prints on his left hand due to burns, and has pins in one of his legs from a injury.

A Met spokesperson said: “Shaune Jones, 49 from Eltham was last seen in June 2017.

“Since the launch of the investigation, officers have carried out multiple enquiries including financial checks and media appeals to the public.

“Following a lack of positive lines of enquiry, the investigation has been filed pending further information.

“No investigation is ever fully closed, and should further information around Shaune’s disappearance become available, the investigation could be considered for re-opening.”

Suzy said due to his vulnerabilities, Shaune wouldn’t have attempted to leave of his own accordCredit: Supplied Suzy had been caring for Shaune for several months before he vanishedCredit: Supplied