Dashcam footage plea in hunt for missing Dean McIlwaine

The 22-year-old barber was last seen in the Carnmoney Road area around 1pm and his family are growing increasingly concerned for his safety.

His cousin Hannah-Ruth Rehbein posted an appeal on Facebook yesterday, urging anyone with a dash cam to look for Dean’s picture in the hope his last-known movements have been captured on camera.

“Perhaps someone has footage of him at a bus stop or beside a pulled-in car,” she added.

The main areas of interest are Carnmoney village, Beverley, Mossley and Ballyduff.

Mr McIlwaine is described as being 5’8” in height, medium build with blue eyes, dark hair and a beard. He also has sleeve tattoos on both arms.

When last seen he was wearing a maroon short-sleeve shirt (as pictured), blue denim shorts and flip-flops.

Police officers carried out a number of searches yesterday.

On Monday evening, a 200-strong search party of volunteers combed the streets and parks of Belfast but without success.

Last night, the missing man’s aunt, Ann Taylor, said Dean’s sudden disappearance has “been a nightmare”.

Ms Taylor told the News Letter: “This has been a terrible, terrible thing. You wake up thinking ‘please let him be found today’. This is the cruellest thing that could happen to anybody. Under normal circumstances Dean would never put his mother through what she is going through.”

She added: “It has been known for people to be missing for seven, or even 10, days and then come back home, so there’s always hope.”

On Tuesday night the PSNI released three CCTV images of the missing man captured earlier on the day he disappeared and renewed their apppeal for information.

Anyone who knows anything about Mr McIlwaine’s whereabouts is asked to make contact with police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 121 of 14/7/17.