France France- Sarjit Kaur Mann, 20, UK student @Birmingham University, went missing on holiday in France, September 1976.

[dotr]

Search for long-running missing people including Cov man who vanished in 1989

Jayson Duffy, from Coventry, had been visiting Amsterdam when he vanished in 1989

www.coventrytelegraph.net

27 Dec 2025
''Another long-running case involves Sarjit Kaur Mann, who was last seen in France in September 1976. She had been on holiday there and is thought to have stayed in the country while the people she was with returned to the UK.''
''Mann had been studying at the University of Birmingham and was living in the city with her family when she went missing. She was described as being around 5ft 1in tall, with long black hair, and may have worn glasses.''
11 January 2025

Mystery of missing Birmingham woman who could be in France

West Midlands Police has urged anyone who may remember any detail "no matter how small" in the case of Sarjit Kaur Mann to get in touch

www.birminghammail.co.uk

'Sarjit Kaur Mann was just 20 when she vanished back in September 1976 and she would be aged 68 now.'

''Investigating officers from the force's missing persons unit said Sarjit is from Birmingham and attended Birmingham University. The force said they know she went to France at some stage and are hoping this might jog the memory of someone with information.''

"Sarjit was from Birmingham and lived with her family. She went to Birmingham University where she is believed to have studied maths. We know she went to France at some stage and we hope someone, somewhere, will have information to help us to find out where she is.''

 

[ZaZara]

The grainy 70s photo that could help police solve a missing person case

The case belonged to 20 year-old Sarjit Kaur Mann, an ‘outstanding student’ who had moved to Birmingham from India with her family and was studying maths at Birmingham University. In the Autumn of 1976, she went on a road trip to France with her brother and sister-in-law – but never returned home.


Four days into their trip, on September 22, the trio visited a beach in the south of France, where Sarjit reportedly made friends with three European, white females.


While her brother and sister in law headed back to England two days later on 24 September, the ‘reserved and sensible’ Sarjit chose to delay her return until 27 September to continue sightseeing. That was the last time any of her family would see her.


Going through the notes, PC Reeve tells Metro: ‘On 27 September, an unknown female who used the name Jane called the family home and told them Sarjit had drowned on a beach. The origin of this call was never traced. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to track ‘Jane’ down.’


BBM


There's something fishy in the South of France.......

 

[Rikissa]

Is there any information about where in southern France she was with her brother and sister-in-law? The Mediterranean coast is long, so it's difficult to know where to start searching for information, if there were any reports about drownings in local papers, I'm not sure they are available online.
I was about Sarjit's age when I visited Paris in September 1977, and as far as I remember I never felt worried/afraid being on my own there.

 

[dotr]

rbbm

Mystery of missing Birmingham woman who could be in France

West Midlands Police has urged anyone who may remember any detail "no matter how small" in the case of Sarjit Kaur Mann to get in touch

www.birminghammail.co.uk

"When she went missing she was described as being slim build, around 5ft 1ins tall, with long straight black hair and she possibly wore glasses which were silver and hexagonal.

"She is also believed to have worn a stainless-steel multi-coloured pendant, silver bangle and wore size 10-12 clothes. If you remember any piece of detail, no matter how small, contact our Missing Persons Investigation Unit on 0121 626 7003.
May 22, 2025

The grainy 70s photo that could help police solve a missing person case

In 1976 20-year-old Sarjit Kaurr Mann disappeared on holiday in France. She hasn't been since and police have just two grainy photos of her.

metro.co.uk

These are the only two photos of Sarjit the police have to work with (Picture: West Midland Police)

'Anything that anyone could think of in terms of proof of life, we covered,’ he says. ‘We have made hundreds of inquiries with the hope that she’s alive – that she started a new life elsewhere. Inquiries have taken us to countries around the world. We know she hasn’t contacted family since. If she has passed away, we are very much relying on DNA – relying on the body to be recovered, but that hasn’t been done yet.’

''Reeves recently met with Sarjit’s two brothers ‘who are still looking for closure and miss their sister enormously.’

‘Sarjit’s case has remained unsolved for nearly 50 years and one of my main goals is to make as many people aware of it as possible,’ he concludes. ‘This is one of West Midlands Police’s longest unsolved cases and, while we don’t know what happened to Sarjit, she deserves to have people looking for her. My aim is to bring that closure to her remaining family.’

 

[ZaZara]

Is there any information about where in southern France she was with her brother and sister-in-law? The Mediterranean coast is long, so it's difficult to know where to start searching for information, if there were any reports about drownings in local papers, I'm not sure they are available online.
I was about Sarjit's age when I visited Paris in September 1977, and as far as I remember I never felt worried/afraid being on my own there.

If she drowned AND someone knew enough about her to identify her AND contact the family home, then how come French LE apparently did not know about it? You see someone drown on a beach and you do not shout for help?

If I'm not mistaken, standard procedure would be for French LE to inform the British police, and they would knock on the family's door to tell them what happened to their daughter.

How would an outsider on a French beach know the family's home adress? No social media in 1976 to help with that one.

September 24, 1976 was a Friday. Returning home to Birmingham from the South of France on that day makes sense if you have to be back for work for instance, on Monday. They were on a road trip together, so most likely in one car. How was Sarjit supposed to return home without a car? Flights were by no means as common as they are today, and prices were high. Did she plan to go by train, then the ferry, then another train to Birmingham? That is a lot of organization for only 3 days extra. Did she have enough money to pay for the return trip? Did she speak sufficient French to get the directions and the tickets that she would need?
Did she perhaps plan to hitchhike? Alone? Would the brother and the sister-in-law agree with that 'plan'?

 

[Rikissa]

If she drowned AND someone knew enough about her to identify her AND contact the family home, then how come French LE apparently did not know about it? You see someone drown on a beach and you do not shout for help?

If I'm not mistaken, standard procedure would be for French LE to inform the British police, and they would knock on the family's door to tell them what happened to their daughter.

How would an outsider on a French beach know the family's home adress? No social media in 1976 to help with that one.

September 24, 1976 was a Friday. Returning home to Birmingham from the South of France on that day makes sense if you have to be back for work for instance, on Monday. They were on a road trip together, so most likely in one car. How was Sarjit supposed to return home without a car? Flights were by no means as common as they are today, and prices were high. Did she plan to go by train, then the ferry, then another train to Birmingham? That is a lot of organization for only 3 days extra. Did she have enough money to pay for the return trip? Did she speak sufficient French to get the directions and the tickets that she would need?
Did she perhaps plan to hitchhike? Alone? Would the brother and the sister-in-law agree with that 'plan'?

If the "three European, white females" she had made friends with in France were the ones who had seen her drown, what says they contacted the police in France when it happened? If Sarjit had drowned as Jane claimed, perhaps they were in some way involved in the drowning, or for some other reason trying to stay away from the police. They/Jane could have kept Sarjit's belongings, and thus known the phone number to her family.

 

[ZaZara]

If the "three European, white females" she had made friends with in France were the ones who had seen her drown, what says they contacted the police in France when it happened? If Sarjit had drowned as Jane claimed, perhaps they were in some way involved in the drowning, or for some other reason trying to stay away from the police. They/Jane could have kept Sarjit's belongings, and thus known the phone number to her family.

This scenario raises a lot of interesting questions, and of course we have far too little info about this case because we have hardly anything at all.

For instance: where was Sarjit staying? No town or village is mentioned. Neither is there any mention of the place. A hotel? Guesthouse? Family? Camping? Was she planning to travel during those 3 days, or did she stay in the same place?

If she was staying in a hotel, would 3 white European women be able to fetch the belongings of an Indian woman from her room? Would the person at the front desk - where the keys are kept - not become suspicious?
If Sarjit did not turn up to check out, would the hotel not raise the alarm? Would the family contact the hotel when Sarjit did not return home?

Sarjit remained in France 'to continu sightseeing'. How would she do that, presumably without the car? Walk? Train? Bus? Rental car? Very few people drown during sightseeing. The risk is bigger at the beach. The beaches in the south of France are crowded and even in September, there still may be lifeguards at the popular beaches. If she drowned, chances are high that the body was recoverd or washed to the shore. And so on.

In 1976, Autumn Term of the University of Birmingham started on Monday September 27. Sarjit should have returned home with her brother and sister-in-law to be on time for her studies. It does not makes sense that she stayed behind in France.

 

[Rikissa]

Yes, there is a lot that we don't know about what Sarjit was doing that September in France. It would be easier if we knew where in the south of France the family had been, and why Sarjit stayed in France. Could the three females have been students from England, perhaps Birmingham, and that being the reason she stayed, and that she thought she was going to return with them?

As she was young, and a student, she probably didn't have much money to spend on accommodation, so I would guess that a youth hostel would be the most likely place to stay. If she was with the three women, they might have shared a room to keep the cost down, and as far as I remember back then, when staying in a youth hostel, after once having checked in, there were not that much of a check-out, often there were no-one at the front desk when leaving.

Back then in the 1970s, it was fairly inexpensive to travel by bus and/or train in Europe, so getting around was probably not a problem.

 

[ZaZara]

Yes, there is a lot that we don't know about what Sarjit was doing that September in France. It would be easier if we knew where in the south of France the family had been, and why Sarjit stayed in France. Could the three females have been students from England, perhaps Birmingham, and that being the reason she stayed, and that she thought she was going to return with them?

As she was young, and a student, she probably didn't have much money to spend on accommodation, so I would guess that a youth hostel would be the most likely place to stay. If she was with the three women, they might have shared a room to keep the cost down, and as far as I remember back then, when staying in a youth hostel, after once having checked in, there were not that much of a check-out, often there were no-one at the front desk when leaving.

Back then in the 1970s, it was fairly inexpensive to travel by bus and/or train in Europe, so getting around was probably not a problem.

If a British person describes someone as European, they are by definition not British, let alone English. Very telling that apparently they did not inquire or remember where they were from. IMO it is very unlikely that they were both students and at the same university. The family would have remembered that coincidence.

Sarjit is described as 'reserved and sensible'. I would be surprised if she decided to hang out, travel and share a room with persons that she had met hardly 24 hours before.

Quoting my previous post:

In 1976, Autumn Term of the University of Birmingham started on Monday September 27. Sarjit should have returned home with her brother and sister-in-law to be on time for her studies. It does not makes sense that she stayed behind in France.