Disappearance of Royal Marine Alan Addis

Alan Addis Jwas a British serviceman who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in August 1980 while serving with the Royal Marines in the Falkland Islands. It was initially suggested that Addis had drowned in an accident, but it is now widely believed that he was murdered. Police investigations have resulted in arrests, but no one has ever been charged in connection with his disappearance and his body has never been found. Background: Addis was a member of Naval Party 8901, a Royal Marines unit which in 1966 was assigned to the Falklands, to be rotated yearly. Led by a Major, the unit's role was to maintain a strategic tripwire military presence on the islands and to provide military and civil defence training for the local defence force, consisting of 120 Volunteers spaced throughout the island and its various settlements. His RM platoon, consisting of 42-men split into 5 to 8 man sections (each led by a Corporal or a Lieutenant), was based at Moody Brook Barracks, six miles west of Port Stanley. Disappearance: At the time of his disappearance, Addis was part of a three-man team that had journeyed to the remote settlement of North Arm in Lafonia on East Falkland, approximately 90 miles (140 km) from the Falklands capital Stanley, to pick up three other Royal Marines and the equipment for an FIDF unit in North Arm, after a week long training. After that, they were to head to Fitzroy in order to train FIDF volunteers over there. On the evening of 8 August, Addis and the other marines attended a function in the village hall (that doubled as a social club) alongside 40 locals. The marines left the event at different times in ones and twos to various local homes, and Addis's colleagues reported last seeing him at around 1:30 am. The following morning the rest of the team began the journey back to Stanley on the steamer MV Forrest. It was not until 30 minutes after they had set sail that it was discovered that Addis was missing. There remains a degree of confusion over the precise sequence of events, and uncertainty over when and how word of the disappearance reached the North Arm community (some of whom appeared to be aware of it in advance of the official announcement) has served to compound the mystery. In particular, a lone land rover was seen heading towards Goose Green. Some specialists from the later forensic team found it unusual it travelled with no other car (to help them in case it got stuck in the road). It was speculated the driver may have been carrying Addis' body. The initial view was that Addis had either fallen overboard or mistakenly stepped off a jetty into the cold waters of the South Atlantic in the Bay of Harbours. His mother, Anne Addis, was contacted at her home in England with the news that Alan was missing on patrol, but then the following day the police visited her to inform her that Alan was presumed drowned in an accident. Over the next few weeks a number of other possible explanations were put forward. These included the suggestion that Addis had become disoriented and wandered off into the Falklands hinterland, possibly succumbing to hypothermia. An air and sea search of the islands and the waters around them (including an underwater search by divers) failed to find any trace of the missing marine and was eventually called off. Later that year, an inquest on the Falklands returned an open verdict. Military investigation: In November 1981 Anne Addis travelled to the Falklands by military transport to make enquiries of her own. She became convinced that foul play was involved and asked the Ministry of Defence to initiate a new investigation led by the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) of the Royal Military Police. She argued that the SIB were better equipped – in terms of personnel, training and experience – to undertake such an enquiry, than the islands' own tiny police force which then consisted of one full-time and a handful of part-time constables. In response, an SIB officer was dispatched to the Falklands, though his eventual report was confidential and Mrs Addis was not given sight of it. The situation was further complicated in April the following year when Argentine forces invaded and occupied the islands. The subsequent conflict between Britain and Argentina, known as the Falklands War, saw British forces retake the islands and the Argentines surrendering on 2 June 1982. During the course of the conflict the local police files on the Addis case were lost, possibly destroyed deliberately by the Falklands authorities to prevent information about British military deployments on the islands falling into Argentine hands. Investigations 1993–1995: In the years following the war, Mrs Addis continued to pressure the British and the Falklands authorities for a new enquiry and remained in contact with a number of Falklanders. In 1993 rumours reached her of an overheard conversation in a Falklands pub where an islander allegedly boasted of their involvement in the murder of Alan Addis. This information was passed to the now reformed, enlarged and renamed Royal Falkland Islands Police. By that time, the Falklands force had re-opened their investigation and were able to discount that particular rumour. They did nevertheless conclude that Addis had been murdered and identified four local islanders as prime suspects. In 1995, having reached an impasse, the Falklands force passed the enquiry to Devon and Cornwall Police, and a team of detectives flew out from the UK. In September of that year, in an operation involving Chinook helicopters from the Royal Air Force base at RAF Mount Pleasant, officers from the Devon and Cornwall Police and the Royal Falkland Islands Police arrested four Falklands men. The men were later released without charge. "Bodyhunters" documentary: In 1997, an attempt was made to locate Addis's body by a specialist UK team. The group included Professor John Hunter a forensic archaeologist at the University of Birmingham and head of the highly regarded Forensic Search and Advisory group (set up to advise and assist police in locating human remains). The team also included experts with ground penetrating radar and a specially trained sniffer dog from Lancashire Police led by Sergeant Mick Swindells. Despite searching over 54 locations the team found no trace of Marine Addis. The investigation was filmed by the television production company Lion Films for a documentary programme screened on British television in 1998 as part of the Channel 4 series Equinox. The programme followed the team's efforts to identify the location of Addis's remains and recorded interviews with his mother, his former Royal Marine comrades and a number of Falklanders. It included interviews with two of the men arrested following the earlier inquiry in 1995. Both men flatly denied any involvement in Addis's disappearance. The programme considered a number of persistent rumours that had been circulating over the years. The first of these was that Addis had been murdered because he had been found in flagrante delicto with the wife of a local landowner, who was interviewed by the programme makers and dismissed the suggestion, though he admitted being aware of such a story. The second rumour concerned the death of a local shepherd, Johnny Biggs, killed in a fire at a bunkhouse in North Arm some two weeks after Addis's disappearance. In the programme Falklanders voiced their suspicions that the man had not actually died in the fire, but had been murdered and the fire started deliberately to conceal this. The fact that his death had occurred shortly before he was allegedly due to give evidence to the Board of Inquiry, together with alleged shortcomings in the fire investigation, were cited as indicating a potential link with the Addis case. According to the programme, there was local speculation that the man had been killed to prevent him giving evidence because he had information about Addis's fate, possibly through being privy to a conversation that implicated another islander in Addis's disappearance. Metropolitan Police investigation: In December 2010, a Metropolitan Police team visited the Falklands to conduct a further search. This followed a tip off from a former Falklands resident who had contacted Anne Addis with information on where Alan's body was buried. Although no body was found, it was reported that the search had turned up new clues and that a follow-up visit to the islands was planned. It was further reported that the head of the Royal Falkland Islands Police had taken the unusual step of offering police protection to anyone prepared to come forward with information. 2018 Forces TV Documentary: Starting in June, 2018, the YouTube channel of the British Forces Broadcasting Service began uploading (in 1/4 parts) a 46-minute documentary on the subject of his early life, and eventual disappearance. The film's producers in particular spoke with several of the specialists who had participated in the 1998 Equinox programme. Most of those interviewed, specialists, former police, civilian, and ex-military acquaintances alike, shared the opinion that he'd been murdered. With most islanders working either for the local civil service, Falkland Islands Company, or British absentee landlords, later rumours mentioned an unofficial town chief with two "strongmen" who enforced his will, thus making him a force to be dealt with in the community. Additionally, several of the aforementioned interviewees expressed their view that Addis had been murdered without premeditation in a fight over a woman, after which the body was allegedly transported out of the settlement. There have been several noted cases of violence between islanders and soldiers and/or by soldiers directed at islanders. Memorials: A memorial plaque commemorating Alan Addis is on display in Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley. Anne Addis established a memorial fund in honour of her son, but in May 2010 she announced that she was to wind this up and donate the monies raised to the Help for Heroes fund for British servicemen.