"We feel we can't move on". Family's anguish over missing Piers

The desperate family of missing St Leonards man Piers Hopson have spoken of their "complete nightmare" over his sudden disappearance.

It has been more than six months since the 36-year-old vanished without a trace from his Southwater Road home.

Dawn Hopson, Piers' mother, said the family "literally live every minute slowly" and feel they cannot move forward.

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She said: "It has been a complete nightmare as we don't know what's happened.

"The last six months have been incredibly difficult and it's been the longest six months of our lives.

"You keep thinking it's going to be resolved but it's not.

"It's like being in limbo and we feel we can't move on.

"There are hundreds of people across the country in similar positions but we never thought this would happen to Piers.

"We hope every day that we will either get a call from the police saying Piers has been found safe or I hear the crunch of the gravel on the driveway with Piers arriving home.

"We literally live every minute slowly."

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Piers went missing on Monday, January 25, after telling neighbours he was going for a walk.

The 36-year-old suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.

Piers, who enjoyed long walks and also regularly used local buses, disappeared wearing a mushroom-coloured anorak, dark trousers and brown shoes.

His 32-year-old sister, Abigail Gutteridge, has taken the hunt online with a group on social networking website Facebook called Help Find Piers Hopson which now has more than 1,500 members.

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The family have also been across Kent, Sussex and further afield distributing leaflets with Piers' face on them in a desperate attempt to find him.

Mrs Hopson said each week Piers' family choose a village or town in Sussex and spend the day distributing leaflets about him through letter boxes, as well as asking local shops and churches to display posters.

She said: "I find it very difficult to ask people to display the leaflets in their shop and then end up in tears as I have to explain everything."

Mrs Hopson said family, friends and people they had spoken to had been 'fantastic' in helping them in their search.

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Piers' father, Roger, said the family did not "sleep a wink" for several nights following his disappearance.

He said: "The first couple of months were the worst."

Numerous possible sightings of Piers have been reported, from Hastings to Hailsham and from Shoreham to Brighton.

Posters of Piers have even been put up in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, as Piers has friends there.

Following his disappearance his parents used to wait at the train station there every day at 2.10pm expecting him to get off the train from St Leonards but have since stopped doing that.

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Whenever Piers visited his family they would pick him up from Tunbridge Wells station at 2.10pm.

Mrs Hopson said: "We were building up our hopes daily but in reality setting ourselves up for a disappointment."

His family have put up a 10,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to Piers' safe return.

Police have carried extensive searches along the Hastings and St Leonards coast but have found nothing. Early police appeals on TV and radio failed to turn up any firm leads.

They scaled down the hunt for Piers in March.

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What is most worrying for the Hopsons is that neither Piers' bank account nor his mobile phone have been touched since before he disappeared.

He had 40 on him the day he was last seen.

Mrs Hopson said: "This is what we find so difficult, the fact that he (Piers) has just vanished.

"He may have grown a beard or put on or lost weight so we wouldn't know how he'd look now. That's the worst thing."

Piers has gone missing several times in the past but has always turned up.

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His sister said: "He spent a Saturday night at a bus stop in Heathfield having missed the last bus. He waited the next day for one but it was a Sunday and the police eventually brought him home."

Piers' family have tried to find an explanation about why he would just vanish.

They are hoping he is staying with someone who has taken him in.

But Mrs Hopson said: "This seems so preposterous as in my opinion if Piers was unhappy he would come home. Home is his comfort zone.

"But I can't think of any other scenario.

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"We believe Piers is alive. We have got to believe this for our own sanity. We desperately want him back."

If anyone finds Piers and he is unwell, call 999 immediately to request police and ambulance attendance.

If he is safe and well, contact Sussex Police on 0845 60 70 999.

His family have set up a dedicated mobile number so people with information can contact them, which is 07552 690607.

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