Daniel Hives disappeared one year ago today (Picture: Robbie Hives/Supplied)
It’s been a year since Daniel Hives went to a party and never came home, but his brother Robbie says the family still hope he will walk through the door one day.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk to mark 12 months since Daniel’s disappearance, Robbie says the family are desperate for some sort of closure after a year of living through an indescribable nightmare.
‘You couldn’t be in a dull mood around him because he was just always raising people’s spirits,’ Robbie remembers.
Daniel, then 30, vanished on Saturday December 10 after going to a party in Lancaster.
‘I got a message from his girlfriend saying he was missing a few days later, and that is when it all came crashing down – just looking at that text.
‘Obviously we would just love for him to walk through the front door, but we know this will probably not be the case.’
Although police were able to trace Daniel leaving the party, which was at a location near the River Lune, they have failed to find any clue to where he went after.
Despite this, Detective Inspector Adie Knowles insists that the investigation is still ‘very much active’.
‘It is very sad that Daniel still remains missing,’ he told listeners of his regular Beyond the Beat segment on local Beyond Radio last month. ‘I’m sure people appreciate that as things go on we exhaust lines of inquiry – but it’s still an active investigation.’
‘You couldn’t be in a dull mood around him because he was just always raising people’s spirits,’ Robbie remembers (Picture: Robbie Hives/Supplied)
Daniel has not been seen since he left a party in Lancaster in December 2022 (Picture: Robbie Hives/Supplied)
Robbie adds: ‘As far as we know, there was an altercation inside the flat – but even then this is all down to rumours.’
The family say they have spent the last year leaving ‘no stone unturned’ in the search for Daniel, even hiring a medium in a bid to find answers.
Now they are hoping someone will remember some information so they can finally get closure.
‘This last year has just been surreal,’ Robbie says. ‘It doesn’t feel like I am living life at the minute, it is like I am in a film and living in another world.
‘It is made worse by the fact we do not have an answer, or any closure. If he had died, we would be devastated but at least we would know.’
Alongside the support they received from Lancashire Police, the family also turned to private search teams to comb ‘every corner’ for Daniel.
But Robbie admits this proved challenging after the disappearance of Nicola Bulley, who also went missing in the Lancashire area at the same time.
Nicola Bulley, a 45-year-old mother-of-two from St Michaels on the Wyre, disappeared in Lancashire around the same time as Daniel (Picture: PA)
‘When Nicola vanished, we were only seven weeks into Daniel’s disappearance, so it was very fresh,’ Robbie explains. ‘Every missing person matters, so we couldn’t understand why Daniel wasn’t getting the same attention.
‘We were requesting help from charitable search teams, but struggled to get one because the team helping to find Nicola were receiving backlash from both the public and the police – it was really hard getting anyone to come out and help us.
‘If it wasn’t for a man called Phil Jones who leads the Beneath the Surface search team, we wouldn’t have had anyone.’
Phil’s underwater diving team searched the River Lune for Daniel using sonar technology and scuba diving skills on more than one occasion this year, but his family are still left looking for answers.
Robbie says they will continue to search until they find out what happened to their ‘protective’ and ‘cheery’ son and brother.
‘He loved his football, he loved going outside, and he was a good big brother,’ says Robbie. ‘We have to do all we can to find him.’
Anyone with information about Daniel and where he might be, please contact police on 101.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Daniel Hives went missing after going to a party in Lancaster.