Specialist equipment is used to scour an area for evidence.

OUR missing person, a despondent lady in her 60s, was called Hilary. We were told she was slim with short fair greying hair and glasses and would be wearing jeans and a blue jacket.

Her parents had died when she was young, she had been abused and she had discovered 18 months ago that her husband was having an affair.

Hilary could possibly be suicidal, she was somewhere in Collingbourne Wood near Ludgershall and we had to find her.

Thankfully, this time it was a training exercise for Wiltshire Search and Rescue (WILSAR), and Hilary was merely a volunteer lost soul, but the situation could be all so real.

Every year this team of volunteers, which works closely with the police, has to deal with around 35 call outs to search for missing persons, although during the first two weeks of September this year they were called out six times!

Some of the missing people are depressed, some have Alzeimer's disease, others are accident victims or have mental health issues, and some are children.

When they are reported missing, the police contact the search and rescue organisation, whose 40 or so members drop everything day or night to come and assist.

I asked team leader, Ali Hollinbery, a recruitment consultant in her usual job, what made her sign up to be woken in the small hours by a call-out text message.

Team members find evidence of an accident during a training session.

She said: "It sounded like something really worthwhile and I love being outdoors."

And a look in Ali's kit bag showed that she was well prepared with notepad and pen, water, torch, lolly sticks for marking footprints and tape in case they came across a crime scene.

She also had a radio for communications and plastic bags to protect any "clues".

Another member, Diane Linley, who develops photographs in a laboratory in Amesbury, said: "One of the team came to my WI meeting and I thought - that's for me."

Volunteers are trained to the standards laid down by the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue and can take additional courses in navigation, first aid or to be a team leader or search controller.

The search controller stays in the well-equipped search and rescue van to co-ordinate the search.

Inside, the van was like a Tardis - there were two kayaks, mountain bikes, ropes, silver survival jackets, flotation aids and anything else you could think of that could possibly be used to help find someone.

The search controller briefed the team leaders on the details for the missing person and they passed on the information to their team.

I joined a team of four and we were allocated our section of the woods to search.

One of our group, Sharon Plowright represented Lowland Search Dogs Sussex and came all the way from Petersfield with her dog Murphy.

She explained that WILSAR did not currently have a dog team and so teams from other counties often came to help out.

Murphy was a trainee route and path dog - the first level in a search and rescue dog's qualifications. Sharon, who teaches nurses in her everyday job, said: "Once they (the dogs) get experience they can work up to six hours solid."

As we navigated our way to Whittle Copse, our section of the woods for searching, we spread out across the path and checked all around us for any signs that someone had recently been that way.

Murphy was wearing his orange search and rescue coat to signify he was working and dashed around in the dense vegetation at the side of the path.

Sharon explained: "If Murphy finds something he'll come back, jump up at me, hit me in the stomach and bark."

We reached the copse and Ali suggested we "route and path" around the perimeter to begin with to get an idea of the area.

A route and path search is something that lowland search teams specialise in so that they can search priority areas first and in a timely way. The team carries out a hasty search of a possible route taken by a missing person. This entails an inspection of the path and undergrowth on either side for clues such as footprints or items of clothing.

According to Steve Upton, Chairman of WILSAR and a search controller, dementia sufferers in particular are highly likely to be found within 100m of a path or road and tend to just keep walking until they meet an obstacle.

He explained that an international search and rescue database holds the statistics for around 35,000 cases and this is used to calculate the likelihood of finding someone in a certain place.

"We have to prioritise areas to search and this is all done on probability."

The five of us continued our search by forming a single line across a section of the wood and walking slowly forward combing the ground in what is known as a line search.

We called out to Hilary as, quite often, missing people actually want to be found.

Only the creaking of trees or rustling of undergrowth answered in the empty eeriness of the woods. Despite my eager anticipation of finding either a discarded black and white handbag, or Hilary herself, it was not to be in our patch.

So after a lot of fresh air and good exercise, we returned to base where Hilary stood with a cup of tea in hand, having been found by one of the other WILSAR groups.

WILSAR holds training sessions every three weeks in Devizes and a longer training exercise like this once every six weeks on a Sunday.

As a registered charity, WILSAR make no charges for their services and all the volunteers provide their own kit and outdoor gear.

They receive no statutory funding and so rely heavily on the generosity of the public and businesses.

Steve said they would need to replace the control van soon and hoped to attract a corporate sponsor.

New members are always welcome to join WILSAR and fundraisers are always needed.

For more information on WILSAR, contact Steve Upton on 07932 698272 or Ali Hollingbery on 07795 035110.

11:25am Thursday 13th December 2007

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