DUBAI In an unprecedented outpouring of support, scores of Dubai expats have joined what could well be the biggest ever manhunt for a missing person in the UAE.
Search teams made up of residents are scouring Dubai streets, distributing posters and looking for leads by asking around in the hope of finding British Royal Navy sailor Timothy Andrew MacColl, 27, who went missing from the city nearly two weeks back. Much of the search is centred around Bur Dubai. The father of two children, aged four and six, was last seen getting into a cab outside Rock Bottom Café at Regent Palace Hotel at 2am on May 27.
MacColl, lovingly known as Timmy, is a leading seaman aboard HMS Westminster, which docked at Port Rashid on May 26 before steaming off without him last Thursday – May 31.
The Briton’s mysterious disappearance has baffled residents. But for once it has also brought them together. In their single-minded pursuit to find the missing sailor, people from various nationalities are taking out time to spread word about him.
“So many Dubai expats want to help find Timmy, so a few of us decided to try and mobilise people. The plan is to have teams outside the Regent Palace Hotel on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening to hand out flyers and raise awareness,” said a woman who has taken the lead for one such campaign on Facebook group Bring Timmy Home. We already have multi-lingual volunteers on board who can talk to taxi drivers and the public,” she told XPRESS.
The posters have been translated into Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Tagalog. By Wednesday evening, the Facebook Group had swelled to over 100,000 people.
Several residents have volunteered to host MacColl’s relatives should they fly down to assist the police in the search.
“I’m going to print missing Timmy posters and give them to my taxi driver on my way home to pass around fellow taxi drivers. You never know the one taxi driver I get could forward the poster onto the driver who last saw Timmy,” posted S.J.
Another resident, Emie, said she’ll make rounds at Bur Dubai with an Urdu/Hindi speaking friend to get any possible leads from taxi drivers, while Sophie proposed a reward for the cabbie. “He’ll come forward if money is offered. Set up a PayPal .. if everyone donates a pound the taxi driver would be set up for life.”
Another resident, A. Husain, said he visited the Rock Bottom Café to look at the positions of CCTV cameras there.
“It’s realistic to hope they have something useful. I will speak to their managers,” he said.
Hotel Regent’s General Manager Mohammad Azam told XPRESS the CCTV footage from that night has been handed over to Dubai Police. Another staff confirmed MacColl visited the café around 11.30pm.
MacColl is described as white, 5ft 8in, of medium build, with short brown hair cropped with a flicked fringe.
He speaks with a Scottish accent and was wearing a red MotoGP T-shirt, dark long shorts and white trainers.
It’s believed he had several drinks at Rock Bottom Café and was put in a cab by two of his shipmates around 2am. They paid the cabbie Dh70 upfront to take him to the ship, docked just a 10-minute drive away. The approximate fare for the distance between Hotel Regent and Port Rashid is around Dh30.
Earlier, MacColl was supposed to have gone to Dubai Mall to get an autograph from Ducati Motto GP rider Nicky Hayden at the Ducati Cafe.
MacColl’s distraught wife Rachel, 25, who is expecting their third child in October, said her husband has not disappeared – he’s missing. “Wherever he is my husband wants to be found...
“Checks have been made with hospitals, prisons, police stations, medical stations and mortuaries and there is no record of him and no sightings so far. It is completely out of character for him not to contact us… we are going crazy with worry. He may be in trouble somewhere, he could be trapped Please, please help us find him,” she said.
Her uncle, Neil Cunningham, said MacColl was carrying a cellphone but could not be reached when his shipmates tried to contact him.
“We are anxiously waiting for his return. The family has immense faith in Dubai Police. We are sure they will find him. We are in regular touch with them and they have been fantastic,” Cunningham told XPRESS over the phone from UK. At MacColl’s hometown Gosport in Hampshire county, the response of residents has been no less overwhelming. Responding to an appeal on the website bringtimmyhome.co.uk, hundreds of residents have tied yellow ribbons on trees, lampposts, drain pipes – in some cases even car bonnets – to show their solidarity.
“Our yellow ribbon outside our house for Timmy and there it will stay till he is returned home to his family!,” S. Bourne Facebooked alongside a picture.
Mark Studdart, senior naval officer of the Royal Navy in the UAE, said MacColl was supposed to report back on the ship by 7.45am on May 27.
The British Embassy confirmed MacColl is missing. This has been reported to the local authorities, who are currently treating the incident as a missing person case.
“The MOD [Ministry of Defence] is working closely with FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] and local authority representatives. His next of kin have been informed and are being provided with support from the Royal Navy,” said an e-mail statement to XPRESS.
