The week four people vanished - and only one made the news

Joanna Yeates disappeared one month ago today. But what of thesimilar cases at the time that the public never heard about?

When Joanna Yeates disappeared from her Bristol home on 17December, her parents suffered the anguish of not knowing what hadhappened to her, but fearing the worst. This explains why theydescribed the news of the discovery of Ms Yeates's body eight dayslater as "a relief".

For the families of Nathan Tomlinson, Ciara Richards and NatalieBailey, there is no such "relief". All three went missing on oraround the date that Ms Yeates disappeared, exactly one month agotoday. But, unlike Ms Yeates, their cases have attracted little orno publicity, and what has happened to them is still unknown.

Mr Tomlinson, 21, was last seen in the Mitre Bar, Manchester, ataround 10.15pm on 17 December - the same night Ms Yeates wentmissing. He was later filmed on CCTV walking towards Salford but hasnot been seen since. Ciara Richards is 14 and has run away from homefive times before. She has not been seen since 11 December afterleaving her home in Hounslow, Middlesex.

Natalie Bailey, a 34-year-old paranoid schizophrenic fromJamaica, has been missing from Dartford in Kent since 13 December.She escaped from the care of a nurse while on day release from amental health unit. The question of why the majority of missingpersons cases fail to merit mention but that of Ms Yeates dominatedthe news became particularly pertinent earlier this month whencelebrities used their Twitter accounts to highlight the case ofSerena Beakhurst, a 14-year-old girl who had been missing since 15December but attracted no media attention. Miss Beakhurst was laterfound.

While cynics suggest that Ms Yeates's case has attractedpublicity because she was a middle-class, photogenic young womanfrom a wealthy area of Bristol, there are several other reasons hercase has received widespread coverage. Firstly, it is now a murderenquiry. But, even before her body was found on Christmas Day, MsYeates had been missing for eight days - which was widely reported.

The police don't always alert the media to missing people.Detectives categorise missing people into three categories - low,medium and high risk, and only those in the high-risk category aregenerally selected for publicity.

The Yeates case was immediately categorised as high risk becausethe police believed that Ms Yeates had come to harm because she hadtold nobody of having any plans that evening and had left her mobilephone and personal belongings at home. Assistant Chief ConstablePhilip Thompson, the spokesman on missing persons for theAssociation of Chief Police Officers, said: "We ask ourselves whatthe specific risks are around each individual. In the Joanna Yeatescase, an investigator identified at a very early stage that it wasan unusual disappearance. She was missing for the first time. Thatwas a high-risk case.

"Someone would also be high risk if they had mental health issuesor if they had a medical problem, or if they were particularly youngor if they disappeared in an emotional state. Similarly, we look atother issues - has the person gone missing before? Where were theyfound? And sometimes people are reported missing when they aretechnically not missing.

He continued: "If someone is staying in local authority care, forexample, and they fail to return on time, the person responsible fortheir care has a duty to report them missing. We often have callsduring which someone will say 'I know exactly where he is, but Ihave to report him missing.' That is obviously not going to be ahigh-risk case.

"That said, we have to take every call seriously. But we alsoneed a ranking scale. We cannot treat everything as high riskbecause we would paralyse ourselves. Similarly, if everything waslow risk we would be neglecting our responsibility."

Approximately 200,000 people are reported missing every year inthe UK. In the Metropolitan Police district 40,525 people werereported missing last year alone.

In Ciara's case, this is the sixth time she has gone missingsince last year. The last time she was not seen for eight weeksbefore returning. Her mother Kerry Richards said: "I can't describehow I feel. It is like I have been ripped apart. The police are solimited in what they can do because kids nowadays have so manyrights. Some people know where Ciara is, but they don't have to tellme."

Mr Tomlinson's brother, Paul, 26, said: "This is so out ofcharacter. Obviously we are worried and we have heard absolutelynothing. If he was somewhere now we would get a phone call, so wehave got to think something has happened."

Natalie Bailey has no family in the UK, which is hindering thesearch for her. Sergeant Joseph McDonald explained: "We have triedto contact the press quite a lot: local press, internet appeals, andwe have distributed her poster to women's refugee centres, inhospitals and in council buildings. There has not been one recordedsighting."

However, very few cases are publicised by the police, let aloneappear in the pages of national newspapers or on television, andthis lack of coverage is difficult for family members. MartinHoughton-Brown, chief executive of Missing People, said: "It isreally challenging to provide coverage for every family of a missingperson.

"Even if we wanted to, we cannot control what the media writes,which is why social media is becoming so important for us. We try toemphasise to families how they can harness the power of websiteslike Facebook and Twitter to search for their loved ones. But I knowmany families get frustrated by the lack of publicity and they askus why there isn't more."

Sometimes it is an operational decision by police to keep themedia appeals small, as Mr Thompson explained: "If we take an appealnational, with the best will in the world someone in Aberdeen willswear blind that they have seen someone who went missing in London -and we know from experience that it is unlikely, because most peoplewho go missing tend to be found in that same area."

Some families simply do not want media coverage. Joe Apps, themanager of the National Policing Improvement Authority's MissingPersons Bureau, explained: "There are a number of families who thinkit is a private event or that the person will turn up. They mightalso worry about the potential embarrassment it brings for thefamily.

"People don't generally go missing for nothing. There is always areason behind it. It depends how much they [families] want whathappens in their family life to be pried into by the police and themedia."

MISSING: THREE CASES THAT FAILED TO ATTRACT PUBLICITY

Ciara Richards

The 14-year-old schoolgirl has been missing from Hounslow,Middlesex since 11 December. It is the sixth time since July thatshe has gone missing - the last time she was not found for eightweeks. Three days later she had disappeared again, and is stillgone. Her mother, Kerry Richards, 33, said: "We are all baffled byit. Ciara is extremely intelligent, doing brilliantly at school andhas lots of friends. When she came home last time, I was justrelieved that she was still alive."

Nathan Tomlinson

The 21-year-old was last seen just after 10pm on Friday 17December by a friend at a work Christmas party in the Mitre Bar inManchester city centre. He was spotted on CCTV walking pastManchester Cathedral and heading towards Salford, but has not beenseen since.

His brother Paul Tomlinson, 26, said: "This is so out ofcharacter. Obviously we are worried. If he was somewhere now wewould get a phone call so we have got to think something hashappened."

Natalie Bailey

The 34-year-old has been missing from Dartford, Kent, since 13December. She suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has been in asecure mental health unit since 2009. She had been visiting a manshe said was her uncle in Lewisham when she escaped from the nurseaccompanying her. Sergeant Joseph McDonald, from Lewisham police,said: "She has no family in this country we can get hold of, she isoriginally from Jamaica. We are very worried about her safety."