"David had everything going for him and had no reason to run away - somebody somewhere knows what happened to him."
Those were the heartbreaking words of a mum appealing for information 16 years after her teenage son went missing from home. When Margaret McCaig kissed David goodbye as he was leaving for a French lesson she never thought it would be the last she saw of him.
David, 13 at the time of his disappearance in 1970, rode off on his bike. The teenager's disappearance sparked one of the biggest missing persons investigations ever seen in this country.
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Officers called on help from Europe and a ship was even stopped and searched at sea amid suggestions David could have stowed away. Mum Margaret made the desperate plea to police to "find me my boy" more than 16 years after his disappearance, as detectives launched a fresh investigation into the nation's missing children in the wake of the Saddleworth Moor searches.
But the search for the missing schoolboy ultimately proved fruitless - and nearly 53 years on the case remains unsolved.
"We don't know where he is"
David, of Dovedale Road, Wallasey, had been to the dentist with mum Margaret on the morning of March 5, 1970. After returning home he prepared to leave on his dark blue bicycle to go back to Withensfield School, now Liscard Primary. As Margaret walked him to the door, she tripped over his rugby boots. He told his mum he had to clean the boots in preparation for a match he had two days later.
The boy, described as 5ft 6ins tall, with brown hair and blue eyes was wearing a black blazer, grey flannel trousers and a blue jacket when he left. But David never arrived at school for his French lesson. And two days later, his face was on the ECHO's front page along with the headline "Wallasey boy missing".
In the days following his disappearance, David's dad Roy said: "There is absolutely no reason why he should have gone missing. He had no troubles at home nor at school."
Investigations first turned to his state of mind in the hours leading up to his disappearance. His conduct was described as "that of a normal child" by the dentist who examined the teen boy.
The dentist added: "I do not consider him to be of a nervous nature. There was nothing to indicate he was anything but normal."
Fears for the safety of David, who had two younger brothers and an elder sister, led a major task force to be established. In the following days, two boys claimed they found David's bicycle in an area of scrub at Wallasey Cemetery shortly after his disappearance. An extensive search of the cemetery was ordered, but the boys changed their story and admitted the bicycle was instead found in a disused shed near the cemetery, in an area known locally as The Aviary.
Police worked under the assumption David had spent the night in the shed. Police also received a statement from Mary Smith, who claimed she saw the "unkempt" boy on the 10.10am train from Lime Street to London on March 14 - more than a week on from his disappearance.
In nine weeks of intensive police inquiries, senior detectives in charge of investigations heard 95 separate statements - mostly from people who claimed to have seen him and identified him from photographs distributed around the country. A Wallasey Police spokesperson told the ECHO at the time officers had eliminated a number of possible leads, but "until someone sees him who knows him, we can't say any sighting is a positive one".
On May 15, the ECHO asked: "How can a 13-year-old schoolboy, with only five shillings in his pocket, evade a nation's police forces? Is David still alive?" After nine weeks, detectives could only say "we don't know".
Attention turns out to sea
David's main interests in life were "the sea and sailing," according to his dad Roy. Police gained a list of all ships in the Birkenhead dock system since he went missing. All ships' agents were contacted to search the vessels and overseas contacts were asked to examine ships in foreign ports.
Police searched a ship bound for Rotterdam after a Birkenhead docker saw a boy matching David's description. Another ship which had left the docks towards Avonmouth was searched by Bristol police after it arrived in port. David was found in neither.
In June of the same year, police mused that David could be in the middle of the Pacific on the liner Ocean Monarch. The liner had sailed from Liverpool the day after his disappearance. A senior police spokesperson told the ECHO: "It seems significant that the boy disappeared about the same time the ship sailed.
"Especially as he went on board the HMS Eagle the Sunday before, when it was tied up astern of the liner. There are 25 laundry boys about his age on the liner and he could have been sheltered without anyone knowing there was an extra boy on board."
Again investigations proved fruitless. A new police drive to find David in April was launched to determine if any clues in the inquiry had been missed. In an effort to bring fresh thinking to the investigation, Superintendent Stanley Fisher, who had been leading the probe, handed over to Detective Inspector Alan Rimmer, of West Cheshire Police Support Group. DI Rimmer said: "I can see no motive to harm the lad."
David's parents remained mystified by his disappearance. "He wasn't in any trouble at home and I can think of no reason why he should have gone off," Margaret said. "I have made a personal check of all David's clothing and personal belongings and nothing is missing."
"I still believe he is alive and will come back"
In August of 1970, David's dad Roy met with Defoe Baker, whose 14-year-old son Christopher had gone missing from their Formby home in June. The two dads said there were "amazing similarities" in the circumstances around the disappearances, but failed to find a common factor that could link the two mysteries.
Around the same time, Roy printed 10,000 posters at his own expense for distribution to police forces around the country. This coincided with David's 14th birthday on September 16, when Margaret told the ECHO that she believed he was still alive. She said: "All we want is for him to come back to us. We are just hoping he will choose this special day to do it."
Three months later, just days before Christmas, his parents appealed once again for their son's safe return. Roy said David's brothers Donald and Keith and sister Anne had been strongly affected. Roy added: "We can't give up, because giving up means that we assume that he is dead."
For several years all leads the police followed proved unsuccessful. Three years on his parents admitted "as time goes on and nothing happens you tend to get pessimistic". But police in Wallasey said they still assumed David was alive until there was evidence to prove otherwise. And in October 1973, police launched a new inquiry with 20 detectives working around the clock to discuss fresh angles in the case.
Chief Inspector Wilf Marsden said: "We are retracing our steps from the beginning. Already we have interviewed all his school pals." But police admitted they were clutching at straws - including following up claims by clairvoyants that a Ouija board would reveal his whereabouts.
A mother begs for an answer
For 16 years, police enquiries investigated and reinvestigated a number of leads without success. On December 19, 1986, mum Margaret issued a desperate plea again to police to "please find me my boy".
Margaret felt almost certain that David was dead, but hoped someone, somewhere could give her clarity. Her call came as detectives launched a fresh appeal into Britain's missing school children amid ongoing searches for the victims of the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Detective Inspector Chris Kemp, who led the new investigation into David's disappearance, appealed to anyone with information to contact him. He said: "There may be someone out there who had a reason not to talk to us all those years ago, whose reason may no longer be valid."
A former Merseyside Police officer, Don Dovaston, spearheaded a new national investigation into missing children. He told the ECHO his officers were liaising with every force in Britain to find possible links in missing school children cases. He added: "Our aim at the end of the research will be to identify the persons responsible for these crimes."
To this day, police inquiries have been unable to find any evidence of what happened to David.
The ECHO put a number of questions to Merseyside Police to see what would be needed for a case to be reopened. Inspector Sandra Capkan, from Merseyside Police's missing persons unit, told the ECHO the police don't set timescales when it comes to a case. Inspector Capkan said: "We can make a missing person 'inactive' if all enquiries are exhausted and we have gone over everything a number of times with no success.
"All missing reports are subject to regular reviews from supervision, and at 28 days a detective inspector from outside the unit also reviews the case. We would never make anyone inactive prior to this 28-day review taking place. When someone is made 'inactive' they remain on PNC as a missing person, so if they are found anywhere in the country, this marker shows them to be a missing person from Merseyside."
Merseyside Police confirmed it had two cases on file that were older than David's. The ECHO also asked what evidence would be needed for the police to reopen a case. Inspector Capkan said: "All 'inactive' cases are reviewed - ideally every six months. A number of checks and enquiries are carried out, including force systems, hospitals, phone, social media, and if there is anything which leads us to believe we may be able to now locate the person, this is reopened."
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