Alan Addis

The Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, lie 480 km off the east coast of Patagonia on the southern tip of Argentina. The continent of Antarctica is a little over 1200 km to the south. The archipelago consists of two main islands (East Falkland and West Falkland) and over 700 smaller islands. In the past numerous countries have had settlements on the islands but they have been under British control since the 19th century. The Falklands is a British overseas territory and as such is self-governed, with the UK having responsibility for foreign affairs and defence. 

At 12000 square Km the Falkland Islands is roughly the size of Wales. Seeing pictures of the landscape reminds me of some of the wild places of south and mid Wales. Dartmoor and the western Isles of Scotland are also similar to the Falklands terrain. It's a remote and tough environment with vast, featureless areas of grass, bogs and hilly, rocky outcrops. 

Over the years the British claim to the territory has been disputed by Argentina. This tension eventually led to Argentine forces invading the Falklands in April 1982 and subsequently a war broke out between the two countries. Three months later Britain took back possession of the islands but only after over 900 people from from both sides had lost their lives. A 2013 referendum saw inhabitants of the islands overwhelmingly vote to remain a British overseas territory. 

The events that I detail in this episode occurred in 1980, two years before the Falklands war. At that time the population of the islands was 1,813, with most inhabitants living in the capital, Stanley. There were other isolated settlements dotted around the islands, based around the main industry of the Falklands: wool-bearing sheep. The freehold of these settlements was owned by the Falkland Islands Company. The company is still in business and is now involved in many industries on the islands, from cafes to car hire.

Marine Alan Addis first arrived in the Falkland Islands in March of 1980. The 19 year old was part of Naval party 8901, an almost 50 man platoon that had travelled over 1200 km from the UK. Their mission had two principal tasks. First was to train members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, a volunteer group of 120 island residents, in basic military tactics and equipment. The second was to maintain a visible British military presence in the area following the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Marine Addis had volunteered to go on the mission to the Falklands but in his letters home to his mother Ann, and according to the 2018 Forces.net documentary, he struggled with the enforced isolation that came with being in such a remote part of the world. From his bunk in Moody Brook Barracks, 10 km outside the capital Stanley on East Falkland, Addis wrote that basic foodstuffs like eggs were often in short supply. He added that he missed watching TV, listening to Radio 1 and being able to go out for a burger. 

With opportunities limited, military personnel were often looking for ways to make life more interesting, to break up the monotony of their regular daily tasks. In early August 1980 Marine Addis, or Alan, as I will now refer to him, volunteered to be part of a three person team to go on a training mission to the Fitzroy Settlement. Alan had to arrange cover for himself when he was away, as he would be travelling with a different squad.

Their task in Fitzroy was to train local residents in defence skills. Fitzroy is around 50 km south of Stanley and the journey would be taken by sea rather than land. The rough tracks that snaked through the island were notoriously slow and even 4 wheel drive vehicles routinely got stuck in the peat bogs. Before arriving in Fitzroy they would detour to collect a three man team who had been training volunteers at the North Arm settlement. This was further south still on East Falkland, so they would then double back to Fitzroy.

The night before the team were due to leave Alan visited a bar in Stanley. He drank only soft beverages and returned early to pack his kit and go to sleep. 

In the morning there was some confusion about wake up and departure times and all three men who were leaving on the trip had to rush to make the boat. They were in such a hurry that none of them managed to eat breakfast. 

The three marines and the vessels crew set off for North Arm in a small trawler called MV Forrest (MV stands for Motor Vessel) early in the morning of Thursday August 7th 1980. Sea conditions were said to be reasonable but the Forrest had no ballast and it was not the smoothest of journeys. By all accounts Alan was not a great sailor at the best of times and he felt very unwell. He did not eat any meals or drink anything hot for the duration of the journey and spent most of the time in his bunk.

When MV Forrest docked at the jetty in North Arm, Alan was still feeling sick. He remained in his bunk while his two colleagues went ashore to meet the three marines they were picking up. The weather was cold and was around 0 to -1 celsius. The wind was said to be “fresh” which would equate to a strong wind on mainland UK. It was already dark but it was a clear night. 

Alan’s two colleagues went to collect ammunition and equipment before returning to MV Forrest. By this time Alan was feeling better and it is thought he ate an evening meal on board the ship followed by a couple of whiskeys, in which both colleagues joined him. At 8.00pm all three left the Forrest and went ashore. They each carried a torch to find their way in the dark. They were headed to the social club to join a party being hosted by the training team they were due to collect. This was a tradition that happened at the end of every short training period. Local residents who had been involved in the training would attend  to say thank you to the marines and send them on their way. 

They expected this would be their last opportunity for free time for a little while, so Alan and his colleagues let their hair down, as did almost everyone in the club. Most of the people in attendance that night drank to access and could be classified as drunk. Alan himself drank a lot but he was said not to be inebriated to the point where he was not in control of himself and his actions.

At 11.15pm Alan’s two colleagues decided to head back to the Forrest for the night. They looked around for Alan but could not see him. They thought he may have gone back to someone's house to spend the night. The pair went to retrieve their torches that had been placed behind the bar for safekeeping and noticed Alan’s was still there. They didn't think much of it and went on their way. At some point in the evening the three other marines who had made up the previous training team also made their way back to the trawler. It is unclear what time they left the party.

At 7.00 the following morning MV Forrest set off for Fiztroy. No headcount was undertaken by the Captain and it was assumed that Alan was asleep in his bunk. Fifteen minutes later one of the marines went looking for Alan and to his suprise found that he was not on board the Forrest. Unable to reach North Arm on the radio and assuming Alan was sleeping off a hangover somewhere on shore, the captain of the Forrest consulted his charts and continued on course towards Fitzroy. Soon North Arm and all its secrets were lost in the fog. 

Hi it's John here, just an important update from one of the cases I've covered. 

On Saturday 15th April 2023 a 13 year old girl named Filippa was abducted in the small town of Kirkerup in south-west Zealand, Denmark. Thankfully 27 hours later Filippa was found alive and is currently recovering with her family.

A 32 year old man was soon arrested and charged in connection with the crime.

Police began looking into the suspect for similar unsolved crimes in the area, including the 2016 murder of 17 year old Emilie Meng. Emilie lived in Korsor, just 20km west of Kirkerup.

I covered the Emilie’s case in episode 23 of Persons Unknown.

On April 26th 2023 The Copenhagen Post reported that the 32 year old man has been charged by Danish police in connection with the murder of Emilie Meng.

I’ll update you with any further news in the case as it unfolds.

You can read more about the story by searching for The Copenhagen post online.

Now back to this week's episode.

Alan Addis was born on July 14th 1961 in Croydon, South London. His parents separated when he was very little and he lived with his mum, Sarah Ann Addis, who went by her middle name Ann.  Alan was an only child. The pair moved to Catford, south-east London when Alan was 8, before relocating to Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire to be near Ann's family when he was in his early teens. 

As a child Alan loved to play outside and his childhood friend Paul said he had a daring streak that was absent in other children. It seemed as though he was ideally suited to be a Royal Marine. His mother Ann described her son as having a quiet and warm-hearted character.

At 17 Alan hoped to attend agricultural college but things didn't work out and instead he signed up for the Royal Marines. He relished the challenge of joining the Royal Navy's elite fighting force and looked forward to proving he was able to cope with everything they could throw at him. Two years later in March 1980 he jumped at the opportunity to travel to the Falkland Islands. His mother Ann was proud of her son but was dreading him going and hoped he would change his mind. He didn’t and, in a time long before the internet, Ann had to make do with written letters to keep in contact with her only child.

When the captain of the Forrest realised that Alan was not onboard the vessel he assumed the marine had got so drunk at the club he had decided to spend the night somewhere on shore, either in a house or perhaps in an old barn or sheep pen. (Apparently, it  wasn't unheard of for drunken marines to pull this kind of thing). The captain decided against going back to North Arm. Alan would most likely make his way over land to Fitzroy. This would mean he would miss the recce part of the mission but he would get there in time for Monday morning when the training started properly. The radio on board the Forrest was not compatible with the one used in North Arm so the captain could not let the settlement know about the situation.

Finally, at 3.00pm, MV Forrest was able to make contact with North Arm and inform them that they had left Marine Addis behind. It soon became apparent that Alan was nowhere to be found and no one had seen the marine that day. Realising that things were more serious than originally thought, the commanding officer at Moody Brook Barracks was informed. 

The following description of Marine Alan Addis was given to search parties. He stood at 6ft 2 or 188cm with dark brown hair. He was last seen wearing a blue denim shirt with pearl studs on the front and dark blue or black corduroy trousers. His coat was a dark blue, full lined, woollen, zip up bomber type jacket. The letters TRA were printed  on the right side of the chest. Additionally Alan wore a Rolex Explorer 2 watch which is said to have a rare serial number. (The number is redacted in documents released by the Ministry of Defence).  He may have had  his wallet with him, which had a picture of his cousin inside. Alan was a smoker and it is thought he might have had a pack of Dunhill cigarettes in one of his pockets. When he left the Forrest to go ashore he had with him a torch. This was said to be a civilian type cylindrical Eveready brand torch.

Searches were carried out in the North Arm, including the jetty area, between 3.00pm and 5.30pm on  Friday 8th August but no trace of Alan was found.

Early on the morning of Saturday August 9th a military search team flew to North Arm by helicopter. Between the hours of 8.00am and 5.00pm divers and a dinghy with a glass bottomed boat were deployed in the sea near the jetty. An air and land search of the surrounding area was also carried out. At 5.30pm MV Forrest returned to North Arm to help with the operation. 

Sunday August 10th witnessed the search team swell in numbers as more personnel arrived from Moody Brook barracks. The land was gone over on horseback and with trained sniffer dogs. Additional dinghies with glass bottoms were utilised in the water.

The official search operation continued until midday on Monday 11th August. At this time it was called off by the officer in command. Over the next few weeks some activity continued, including regular sweeps of the harbour and coastline as well as twice weekly searches in a 8 km radius from North Arm. The searches never provided a shred of evidence that pointed to what had happened to Alan and his vanishing remained a mystery. 

The military established a Board of Inquiry (consisting of commissioned officers) in September 1980, that investigated the circumstances of the disappearance of Marine PO37596k Alan Addis. The Royal Falkland Islands Police (RFIP) were also involved in some capacity to prevent any accusations of cover ups or a white wash investigation. The RFIP, which was a tiny force of under 10 members of staff, had led their own investigation from when Alan was first reported missing. As I will detail later it has since been criticised for lacking urgency in the early stages of the case.

The Board of Inquiry report has been made available through a freedom of information request and I have already used some of the details  within it to tell of events until this point. Any names mentioned in the report were redacted when it was released. 

The Board of Inquiry interviewed Royal Marine personnel from Naval party 8901 and civilian residents from North Arm settlement. In their report that was produced in the autumn of 1980 it is mentioned that the Falkland Islands Company was also cooperative with the investigation. 

The board spoke with individuals who were present at the social club on the night Alan went missing. Exact details of the evening were difficult to pin down. Information about Alan’s movements and timings during the course of the night proved to be vague and inconclusive. The Board of Inquiry put this down to the fact that most people had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol and memories were hazy. 

Since Alan disappeared there had been rumours that he had gotten into a heated argument with a local resident at the bar. The Board found this was not as significant as the rumours suggested and did not believe it was connected to Alan’s disappearance. The board also found evidence of another argument between two people in the bar but this too was not viewed as significant to the case. The bar manager said that there were no fights or scuffles and at no point during the evening did he have to intervene.

The board had also received reports from a witness that Alan had been agitated during the night and had angrily slammed a shut a toilet door. After investigating the Board discounted this story. On the contrary, they found that Alan had been in good spirits during the evening and had been acting normally. 

The investigation discovered that while Alan did get drunk he never became incapable. Someone at the social club did suggest to Alan that he stay in a nearby bunkhouse for the night but he refused and was determined to go back to the Forrest. The last sighting of Alan was at 1.30am now August 8th when a witness saw him leaving the social club. They did not see him return. No one saw Alan outside the club.

Another witness claimed to have seen Alan back in the bar buying drinks at 2.30am. The witness was vague about details and could not remember what member of staff was serving at the bar. The witness claimed that Alan was ordering soft drinks. To the Board, this last detail seemed at odds with other statements that said Alan had been drinking alcohol all evening. This sighting is therefore not confirmed and the Board put little faith in it. 

It was the view of those who were with Alan that evening that he was capable of making it back to MV Forrest by himself. The lights of the jetty and the Forrest could be clearly seen from just outside the social club. There was just a 50 m stretch along the track down to the sea where the Forrest was out of view.  At 6.00am on the morning of 8th August there was a layer of frost on the jetty but no footprints were found here. It could not be determined at what time the frost appeared. 

The board of inquiry pointed to a couple of possible explanations as to what could have happened to Alan that night. The first possibility was that Alan left the social club and started to walk back to the Forrest. In the cold air Alan sobered up somewhat and found somewhere to sleep outside. Alan could have died of exposure and sunk into a peat bog. Another theory was that Alan slipped on the jetty and fell into the sea and drowned. He may have even fallen in between the jetty and the Forrest and then got trapped underneath the boat. His body could have then been dragged out to sea when MV Forrest left the next morning. It was noted that in the southern hemisphere at that time of year a body would be expected to surface within three weeks. This, however, had not happened.

The board of inquiry concluded that without a doubt Marine Alan Addis was dead and they believed he had most likely drowned. While they did find that the captain of MV Forrest should have raised the alarm sooner they did not believe this was critical to the outcome of the search. Certainly the question of why the Forrest did not return to North Arm, once they knew Alan was missing, has never fully been explained.

The findings of the investigation were endorsed by the Falkland Islands Governor, Sir Rex Masterman Hunt. An inquest was also carried out into the matter. With Alan’s body remaining undiscovered the coroner gave an open verdict. 

Not everyone was satisfied with the conclusion of the Board of inquiry. James Johnson, MP for Kingston upon Hull where Alan's mother Ann resided, was contacted about concerns that Alan may have been the victim of foul play. The names of military personnel who felt uneasy about the board's findings have been redacted in released police case files.  

James Johnson MP in turn met with Parliamentary undersecretary of state for the Royal Navy, Keith Speed.  Following this meeting at least one member of the Royal Military Police (RMP) Special Investigations Branch, travelled to the Falklands in March 1981. They interviewed local residents and military personnel about Alan's disappearance. 

On the back of these conversations an interview was conducted on June 10th 1981 with a Royal Marine stationed on the islands. The unnamed marine stated that if Alan Addis had died by accident his body would have been found. He told the RMP that it was his belief Alan had died as a result of foul play. The marine also said the police investigation into Alan's disappearance had not been anywhere near thorough enough. The RMP also learned that Alan and a local resident had been involved in heated discussions during the course of the evening. What's more the person he had been arguing with was said to have left the social club with Alan. This individual was approached by the RMP but was reluctant to discuss the matter. 

The RMP report on their investigation was compiled in the summer of 1981. This was not made public at the time. In 2018 Forces.net, a news and stories website specifically about and for the military, aired a documentary about the disappearance of Alan Addis. This fleshed out more detail about the “heated discussions” Alan was said to have been involved with in the social club. The documentary alleges that one argument broke out because one of the North Arm residents said they were very impressed by one of the marines who had been training them. Alan strongly disagreed as he felt the marine in question was a show off. The resident denied this conversation and said he had talked to Alan about sport.

Another rumour centred around Alan making advances towards the wife of a local resident. There are several strands to this rumour. Some say he was having an affair with this woman and others that he was caught in the act with this woman. I will revisit these rumours later in the episode.

The Forces.net documentary discloses suspicious incidents that occurred in the aftermath of Alan's disappearance that raise questions. The first took place early on Friday August 8th 1980. This is the morning after the party at the social club and just hours after Alan was last sighted.  At around dawn a North Arm resident was seen leaving North Arm for Goose Green Settlement, 50 km away, to inform them that Marine Addis was missing. The issue was this happened hours before MV Forrest was able to make contact with North Arm to tell them that Alan was missing. It's even more odd when you take into consideration that people generally did not travel alone over land as the terrain was so treacherous. 

The second incident occurred during the Board of Inquiry investigation in September 1980. A local shepherd from a remote settlement, James “Jimmy” Biggs arrived in North Arm to give evidence to the board. The night before he was to be interviewed he stayed at a local bunkhouse. During the night there was a fire on the premises and James Biggs died. This left many wondering how this was possible, as the bunkhouse was said to have been made fireproof. The Forces.net documentary explains that there was some controversy over the position the body was found in and the fact that no post-mortem was carried out. It is even alleged that James Biggs had an argument with a North Arm resident the evening before the fire. 

Alan’s mum Ann was aware of the rumours and speculation surrounding her son's disappearance from early on. In November 1981 she travelled to the Falklands herself. She talked to residents, the RFIP and members of the Royal Marines. While searching an outhouse Ann herself found a knife that the police searches had failed to find. This in itself proved nothing but did provide evidence that the investigation had missed things and had not been as thorough as it should have been from the offset. 

Another odd thing happened when Ann was visiting the islands. A right-angled military style torch was found in the garden of a  property previously lived in by one of the North Arm residents. A local woman told Ann that the police had found Alan’s  torch. However at that time only the officers engaged in the search knew about the find. As it turned out this was not believed to be Alan's torch as as i have mentioned on the night he went missing he had with him a cylindrical civilian torch. Still, this did seem to reinforce that there were secrets  people were hiding. 

To this day Alan’s torch has never been found. The clothes he was wearing when he went missing and his Rolex watch have also never been recovered.

Ann left the islands convinced that her son’s disappearance was no accident and that something sinister was afoot. 

While there were plenty of rumours circulating, no hard evidence could be produced and without a body it could all be put down to hearsay and coincidence. 

On April 2nd 1982 Argentine forces launched operation Rosario and invaded the Falkland Islands. Britain regained control of the territory two months later but in the meantime many of the police and military notes concerning Alan’s case had been destroyed. This may have happened during Argentine bombardments but there is a possibility some of the documents were intentionally destroyed at the start of the invasion to prevent them getting into the hands of the occupying force; a pretty standard military tactic in these situations. There is little doubt that the conflict seriously slowed down efforts to further investigate what had happened on the night Alan disappeared. If the Islands were hiding a secret the war helped to prevent it coming out into the open.

Over the next decade the truth of what had happened to Alan remained shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the whole affair would have been forgotten if it hadn't been for Alan's mother Ann. She continued to ask questions of those in authority and refused to let the matter drop and her commitment and perseverance did pay off. In 1993, as the RFIP were moving to computerise their workflow and digitise evidence, they uncovered some leads in Alan's case that had never been followed up. This led the force to officially reopen the investigation into Alan's disappearance. After two years re-examining the case they now suspected that Alan had been the victim of foul play. 

The RFIP asked the Devon and Cornwall police to travel to the island to undertake their own investigation into the matter. The two forces already had strong training links so it was an obvious choice. Four officers from Devon Cornwall police travelled to the islands at the end of  August 1995. To coincide with their arrival an interview with Ann Addis was played on Falklands TV.  It was an emotional plea from Ann for people to come forward to help finally return to her son and end the nightmare.

Members of Devon Cornwall police and the RFIP, assisted by two military chinook helicopters, raided properties in North Arm on the morning of September 27th 1995. Two middle aged men were arrested in connection with Alan’s disappearance. A few hours later another two middle aged men were arrested and taken to Mount Pleasant police station in Stanley. All four men are believed to have been present at the social club on the night Alan went missing. On the 29th September press reports state that after being questioned for 24 hours police applied for an extra 36 hours for interviews. Family and friends of the men were also questioned

Just a day later it was announced that all the men had been released without charge and that the Devon and Cornwall detectives would be leaving shortly.  The detectives told the RFIP that the men knew nothing about what happened to Alan.  Despite this decision, RFIP investigations did continue. Less than a week later the Chief of the Falklands Police, Ken Greenland, oversaw the opening of an unmarked grave, which had been first discovered in 1983. I believe that remains were found but this was said not to be connected with Alan’s case. At this time Interpol was also reported to be involved in attempting to track down two men who left North Arm shortly after Alan’s disappearance. 

Searches  continued well into 1996. In early January of that year a small patch of land  measuring just 180cm by 90cm, near Danson harbour, 18 km from North Arm, was dug up. This area had long before been suggested as a possible burial site because of ground abnormalities. However, investigators eventually concluded that any changes to the soil were not man made.  By March, comments made in the press by RFIP suggested that earlier optimism had been replaced with resignation that the investigation would come to an unsatisfactory end. The leads they had were exhausted, all the rumours had been examined and they were still no closer to finding any solid evidence.

In February 1996 the association of chief police officers approved the formation of a new group to assist in cold case and missing person investigations. The Forensic Search and Advisory group (FSAG) consisted of numerous trained experts at the pinnacle of their field. The 12 person team was led by forensic archaeologist, Professor John Hunter. Other members  included Steve Taylor from Birmingham University, who pioneered a new form of radar for detecting buried bodies and Mick Swindells, a former Lancashire police officer and dog handler. At the time Swindells had a 5 year Border Collie called Lee who was one of only three dogs trained to seek out human remains buried deep underground or in water. There were also specialists in the fields of pollen analysis and resistivity, a method that uses electric current to detect ground disturbances.

In January 1997 on behalf of the Home Office the FSAG travelled to East Falkland to undertake some preliminary searches of fifteen areas. The locations had been pinpointed through work carried out by local police and included back gardens, houses and stables. Nothing was found but the group were not deterred and made plans to return later in the year to make more thorough searches.

The FSAG returned to East Falkland in December 1997 and their work continued into the new year. Newspapers such as The Aberdeen Press and Journal ran stories at the time referencing a long standing rumour that Alan had been killed on the orders of an influential landowner who suspected Alan of having an affair with his wife. The operation by the FSAG was documented by the Equinox TV programme for Channel 4. The episode titled “The Body Hunters' was aired  in the summer of 1998. 

The FSAG were under pressure to deliver results. They encountered lots of rumour and opinion on what had happened to Alan but ultimately their endeavours produced no fruit. By the end of January 1998 Chief Superintendent Ken Greenland of the RFIP announced that the search was to come to an end. The FSAG had examined a total of 54 locations but had found nothing. Such was the terrain they were covering that they could have been a matter of metres from the body and be none the wiser. Speaking about the local population's response to the FSAG search, Professor Hunter told Forces.net that people did what they had to do. They were not uncooperative or over supportive. In many ways it was the same as any close knit community who are suddenly forced into the limelight in such a way.

So what happened to Marine Alan Addis?

The documentary by forces.net puts forward several theories. These are largely based on long-standing rumours. It must be added that the rumours have remained consistent since early on in the investigation. 

The first is that Alan was caught in the act of sexual relations with a local woman. Alan was then maybe targeted by the woman’s partner. He was an influential man who ordered two other men who acted as his protection to carry out an attack on Alan. It may be that they did not set out to kill Alan but things got out of hand. These two men have apparently been looked into as suspects in the case. 

The wife of this influential islander was said to have displayed stressed behaviour following Alan’s disappearance. Other residents spoke of an obvious deterioration in the couple’s relationship after Alan went missing. The wife was also the only person who refused to meet and talk to Ann Addis when she visited the island. 

The team from the Channel 4 documentary “The Body Hunters” interviewed the alleged landowner but he denied that he had anything to do with what happened to Alan and no evidence has ever been produced to back up the rumours.

Another theory proposes that Alan was killed by a fellow Marine. If you remember the focus of one of the alleged disagreements inside the club between Alan and a local resident centred around one of his colleagues. The local resident thought this marine was an outstanding soldier whereas Alan disagreed and believed him to be an arrogant show off. The Forces.net documentary says that this marine had a reputation for being a hard man and had used violence in the past. It proposes that this marine would not have taken kindly to criticism of his standing. Journalists Martina Andretta and John-Paul Tooth wrote an article summarising the documentary for focres.net. They claim this particular marine was well-liked in North Arm and it’s feasible  local residents could have been persuaded to help him cover up what had happened to Alan. However, Andretta and Tooth make the point that the marine in question co-operated wholeheartedly with investigators when the case was reopened by the RFIP in 1993. No evidence has ever been found against this person and he has never been charged.

There are other more peripheral theories. One suggests that Alan may have been kidnapped by Argentine forces who were on a secret mission to the island. Another involves Alan being eaten by pigs. This has two possible angles. Either he was killed by someone and his body deliberately fed to pigs to hide the evidence or in his drunken state he found a pig sty to sleep in for the night and was subsequently killed by the pigs. A pig sty within North Arm Settlement  was searched but nothing was found. No evidence exists for any of these ideas.

The final theory came about after a desperate Ann Addis  visited clairvoyants in the hope of finding her son. The first two clairvoyants she visited only gave vague details which were unhelpful but a third did provide a lead. Medium Nella Jones who had worked on the Yorkshire Ripper case provided a very specific narrative and set of details which the RFIP did explore. Nella Jones said that Alan had been killed by knife in North Arm settlement. His body had then been placed on a boat which had turned right out of the harbour and taken it to a cave. A cave near North Arm was searched by police but no body was found. 

In 2010 the RFIP reopened the investigation once again after a new piece of information came to their attention. It was a variation of a well circulated rumour but with additional details. The tip off said that Alan had been intentionally run over by a vehicle. This had happened after Alan had made advances towards a local woman. Alan's body was buried in a tin outhouse. The RFIP asked the Metropolitan police in London for assistance and they sent two technical engineers to help with the search for Alan’s remains. The Met Staff were in the Falklands from December 10-19th 2010 and used ground penetrating radar equipment to help look for a body. Nothing was found and the Met were not asked to return for more searches. No detectives from the Met were involved. 

Although Ann Addis was resigned to the fact her only child was dead she never gave up the hope that she would find out the truth. She lived every day of her life for her mission and never stopped pressuring the authorities to exhaust all leads in the search for Alan. In 2003 Ann wrote a book about Alan's disappearance and her struggle to get to the bottom of what had happened that night. Ann Addis passed away in 2011 without finding the answers she was looking for. No parent could have done more for their child.

Royal Falkland Island Police Superintendent Jeff McMahon admitted in 2018 that the original response by police was not up to standard. In their defence the force only consisted of 8  members of staff including one administrator. They were not used to dealing with anything on this scale. This was also highlighted by the team that reopened the case in the 1990’s. We can only speculate if there would have been a different outcome if the initial police response had been more thorough. 

The stories and whispers surrounding  Alan's  disappearance may well have no substance. Perhaps they sprung up as a way for the community to explain the tragic and sudden way Alan vanished. Could a lie of this magnitude remain hidden for so long, in a place with so few people?  

Nevertheless, what happened to Alan Addis remains a  mystery and the rumours have never gone away. If there are people out there who know the truth it's not too late to unburden themselves and give up the dark secret they have held for so long.