Gary Burns was 39yrs old when he went missing from Icmeler, Turkey during the summer of 2016. He was originally from Birkenhead, but had lived between Icmeler and Marmaris for several years after starting a relationship with a Turkish girl during a holiday. The relationship fizzled out after two years, but he decided to stay because he had made work, made good friends and was settled. He is approximately 5ft 11in tall, of slim build with brown eyes and dark brown greying hair and speaks with a Merseyside accent. He has a small tattoo on his arm and possibly one on his wedding ring finger. Gary’s family became worried when they didn’t hear from him for a few months, as he had always kept in regular contact, particularly via social media. Their concerns were further compounded when he didn’t make contact over the Christmas period. However, as he often left the island in the winter months to find work, they remained hopeful. It wasn’t until friends started making contact to say they had not heard from him either, they decided to take action. When Gary’s family made contact with Turkish authorities and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, it was established Gary was last seen on 5 August 2016 and his last known workplace was The Vodka Bar in Icmeler. They also discovered in the previous weeks he had been missing work and failed to meet with friends, which is completely out of character. Terry Burns launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of his brother’s disappearance. He received an extremely worrying message from someone claiming to be a friend of Gary’s who said he had been bundled into a car, murdered and buried in the Turkish mountains. She said he was killed over a debt to his boss and was prepared to make a statement. Turkish Police arrested a local man and woman, but they were later released due to lack of evidence. This year the family have been given a ray of hope after liaising with Lucie Blackman Trust, who specialise in supporting families with missing loved ones abroad. If you have any information please phone 0800 098 8485 free from landlines in the UK. From overseas you can call +44800 098 8485. Alternatively, you may prefer to email any information to ops@lbtrust.org. A note from Terry Burns (brother) “When we first reported Gary missing, police over in Turkey never took it seriously, We told them that something has happened to him and they still think he's just decided to move on. Two local men were questioned, but released without charge and have since left Turkey. Merseyside police initially were very cooperative and made contact regularly, but we have not heard from them in months. The Turkish police are even worse and it is 8-10 months since any authority has been in touch. We are still unaware if checks have been made at Gary’s last known address. It is beyond belief they have allowed two persons of interest to leave the country. The Embassy have also been no help to our family, we are extremely disappointed that communication is always initiated by ourselves. A family member was in Turkey when we first made contact, but they were not interested. Gary’s disappearance has broken our family as we know something sinister has happened to him, but we are not taken seriously. We desperately need more support and proactive investigations as we fear he will be forgotten and we will never know what happened to him.” Lucie Blackman Trust: http://www.lbtrust.org/single-post/2016/08/12/Gary-Burns Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garyburnsappeal/ #FindGaryBurns #DamiensLaw