Kind-hearted volunteer water search teams have offered a hand in the ongoing efforts to trace missing Salford grandad Peter Baglin. The 55-year-old, from Boothstown, vanished nine weeks ago after going out for an evening walk on December 28. He was last seen on CCTV cameras in a local petrol station, on the East Lancashire Road, buying a small bottle of whiskey.
Since Peter's sudden disappearance, police and the local community have undertaken huge search operations, including in the Bridgewater Canal and woodland near his home and much further afield. To this date, there have still been no confirmed sightings or leads, leaving his heartbroken wife Michelle and family in turmoil.
And as was seen in the case of tragic mum Nicola Bulley, who went missing in Lancashire before her body was pulled from the River Wyre, self-proclaimed 'social media detectives' have emerged, sharing their own views on what they believe may have happened to Peter in Youtube videos and comments.
READ MORE Wife of missing Peter Baglin says she's received horrible messages from online trolls
In one video uploaded to Youtube, one user called the case of missing Peter 'strange' and shared their own suspicions that they believed a 'third party' may have been involved.
Lancashire Police had previously slammed a number TikTok sleuths regularly seen filming near the location of where Nicola Bulley was last seen who had shared conspiracies in posts online. It prompted police to implement dispersal orders in the area and council chiefs to slam acts of 'social media idiocy'.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Michelle Baglin, who has been with husband Pete for almost 30 years, said the emerging online speculation was 'not helpful' - but that she has already been at the receiving end of numerous vile comments online.
"These people say they are social media detectives, but it hasn't sat very well with me and it is not helpful at all. It is giving false information like there possibly being a third party involved," she said.
"It is very inappropriate and just fuels more speculation. I don't like the implications, but I have already had this with all the stuff on Facebook."
Previously, wife Michelle told the M.E.N that she had also been forced to read messages from trolls online, with people writing that her husband 'may be cheating' or that 'he doesn't want to be found'.
In the days following Peter's disappearance, a number of his belongings were found close to the embankment of the Bridgewater Canal, on Vicars Hall Lane. His hat, phone, bank cards, tobacco, house key and headphones have been recovered and are with police.
A voluntary underwater search team, Beneath the Surface, based in Lancashire, stepped in to offer further help on Tuesday (February 28). They contacted Michelle to offer their assistance in the ongoing search, using high frequency sonar technology to scour around three miles of the Bridgewater Canal but that the search did not indicate a body.
A spokesperson for the Beneath the Surface team said: "We heard about Peter being missing via our Facebook page and with being a Voluntary Underwater Sonar Search Team called Beneath The Surface based locally in Chorley, Lancashire. We contacted the family privately to tell them who we are and offer our assistance voluntarily as always if they required it.
"We are a voluntary group completely self funded and operating in our personal time alongside our full time jobs. We have been operating two years and travel the whole of the country. We began as a group of friends sonar scanning and scuba diving to locate objects until we saw a family raising money for a private team to search for a missing loved one and we felt a family going through such a traumatic time shouldn't have to pay to search for their loved one.
"Now we regularly volunteer with Police and Search And Rescue as well as continuing to volunteer to families directly. We take this important work extremely seriously and regularly train and try to improve our equipment. We use high frequency sonar, underwater camera and dive equipment to locate objects underwater. If any potential target is located we visually identify to confirm.
"We searched an approximate three mile stretch of water with the location Peter's belongings were located being central along with specific areas of concern for the family that they requested us to search including the marina. Underwater searching is always difficult especially in marinas and we can never give 100 per cent guarantees on any search however to the best of our ability all we located was tyres, logs, a fence panel, and other general waste that from dimensions didn't indicate a possible person.
"We at Beneath The Surface thank the family for their faith in us with such an important matter and continue to hope for the best possible outcome for them."
Peter, who works at Salford Royal Hospital alongside wife Michelle, was last seen wearing navy coloured joggers, walking shoe type trainers and a grey Mountain Equipment hoodie with a red zip and a hat. He is described as being 5ft 10ins in height, with grey hair, and a tattoo on the left side of his neck that says 'Michelle'. He is also wearing his wedding ring.
Officers are asking anyone who may have seen Peter, or anyone with any other information regarding Peter's whereabouts, to contact them on the switchboard 0161 856 8351 or 0161 856 7857, via 101 or by speaking to the independent charity – Crimestoppers – anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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