On average 17 men disappear each year after, and most are later found dead in rivers and canals.
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''Geoff Newiss, who co-authored the University of Portsmouth research, studied each of the 150 cases to analyse why so many young men die in water.
His work shows that 70% of those who went missing on nights out were aged 25 and under, with 45% being under 21 – and more than one third were students. The winter months of December, January, February and March accounted for over half of all cases.
“What you find with men, there is a lot higher risk of fatality. These estimates are based on pretty ropey data, but it’s the best we’ve got. I always say if it’s a man missing on a night out and you haven’t got them back in the first 24-48 hours, then you are looking at a roughly 90% fatality rate. That is absolutely enormous. It’s probably the highest risk of fatality among any missing person category.”
Newiss added: “With women, there is a much higher rate of homicide. There are accidents as well. There was quite a famous case in York a few years ago which was very much the male profile of too much to drink and she went down by the river and stumbled in. But you don’t hear it as often with women.”
Shrewsbury and York are just two of the hotspots, along with Bath, Durham, Bristol and Manchester.
Each place has two crucial things in common – a busy night-time economy and a river or canal running near the town centre.''
