For Alexandra Hicks, the festive season is a time of profound and painful absence. It has been 39 years since her older brother, Kevin Hicks, then just 16, walked out of their family home in South London to buy eggs for a school cooking exam and never returned.
A Vanishing That Froze Time
Alexandra, who was 15 at the time, recalls the date with chilling clarity: March 2, 1986. "I remember it as if it was yesterday," she says. Kevin had popped to a local corner shop, a simple errand that turned into a lifelong mystery. The following morning, Alex saw her mother sitting on her brother's windowsill, staring towards the shop. His bed was unslept in.
Her father contacted the police but was told that because Kevin was 16, they had to wait 24 hours before acting. "I can't help but wonder if things would be different today," Alex reflects, noting that current procedure allows for immediate reporting. For nearly four decades, the question of what happened to her fun-loving brother, who enjoyed a stable home life, has haunted her.
A Family's Unending Quest for Answers
The personal toll of Kevin's disappearance has been immense. Alex's mother spent eight years searching for her son before dying without answers in 1994. Their father passed away in 2003, also never knowing the fate of his cherished child. Alexandra has since carried the torch, vowing never to give up hope.
"If you give up hope then what have you got?" she asks. "I owe it to my parents to find out what happened and to show he hasn't been forgotten." She describes feeling like an orphan, having lost both parents and her only sibling. Yet, she clings to happy memories of their childhood, of bickering over Christmas presents and shared birthdays just a day apart.
The Official View and a Sister's Defiance
The Metropolitan Police launched a renewed appeal with a £20,000 reward three decades after Kevin vanished, but it yielded no fresh leads. A police spokesperson stated it has previously been concluded that Kevin was likely murdered on or after the night he disappeared.
Alexandra defiantly rejects this conclusion due to the lack of physical evidence. "I won't accept he's dead because we don't have a body," she declares. "The police say he was killed that night but where's the body, where's the proof?" While some have suggested he may have been groomed, she admits that dismissing this could be "me being in denial."
Her message to Kevin, should he be out there, is simple: "I'd give him a slap and then a hug... I won't even ask why he disappeared. If he's watching I'd like to say 'Kevin, please let me know you're ok'."
Paul Joseph, Head of Helplines and Reconnections at the charity Missing People, emphasises how acute the pain is during holidays. "When someone you love is missing, life feels paused," he says. "At Christmas, that absence feels even heavier. A place at the table remains empty." The charity offers a vital lifeline, supporting the estimated 72,000 children who go missing in the UK each year.
Alexandra's story is part of The Mirror's 'Missed' campaign with Missing People, launched in April 2025, which aims to raise awareness, reunite families, and push for a national strategy. For Alex, the search continues. "Every Christmas I wish for him to come home," she says, a wish unfulfilled for 39 long years, but one she will never stop making.
