From your info it seems like the police have no responsibility to update the public if they are contacted by a missing person who doesn't wish to return home, and rightly so, as you said it's not a crime. So I still wonder if this is the case - perhaps his family has been told he is okay, but no details on where he is now as he requested privacy? To the family, he would still be 'missing' in a way as they don't know what happened to him or where he is... I know if my husband was missing then I was told he had been in contact and was okay... I will still want to locate him regardless of whether he wanted to be found!! Or perhaps he has been in contact, but the police are still in the process of verifying it is him / he is safe and therefore have called off the media but aren't telling the family anything until it's confirmed?
It's a can of worms and what I have found is that there is recommendation that families of missing people seek councilling especially of the possibility that the outcome may not turn out as they hope. Could be a victim of a crime or some sort of foul play or if the person is found and then that person wants no contact nor wants family to know where they are located. Or the possibility of living the rest of your life never knowing.
Even minors who go missing and are under 17, though their parents get informed that they have been found, can request no contact once located. But if they have no safe place to stay as an alternative, then they come under the Child Protection act.
http://www.burstingthebubble.com/leavehome.htm
http://www.lawstuff.org.au/nsw_law/topics/
It can be a gruelling situation. Family wants to know where the missing person is located and make contact and gets upset and more hurt than ever when the located person wants nothing to do with them. And sometimes the missing person who doesn't want family to know that they are found safe nor where they are located, can resent being found and having their family told that they are found safe, thus causing them more grief.
After what I have read and found out the last few days, I honestly, more than ever hope that Nick gets located and that it turns out well for him and his family and friends. And whist a person is listed as missing, as Nick is, there is always that terrible thought in background that he could be a victim of foul play.
Very emotional stuff for everyone involved. I know what it's like to have family (and a friend too) missing, but I never really thought about it this deeply at the time because they ended back home even if it did take a few years in one case, but I was too young at that time to realise the full implications. Explains my bizarre fascination for the missing, yet at the same time, inspite of having a great family and good friends, I have a 'secret' yearning to be able to disappear myself. This has done my head in for the night!
