Robert with Stephanie and Charlotte when they were young girls

THE family of a man who has been missing for nearly 12 years is urging potential witnesses to “have a heart at Christmas and come forward with information”.

“When a body gets found we’re hoping that it’s my dad,” Stephanie Duff tells the Tribune. Her father, Robert, disap­peared from Archway in 2013 on the eve of her 18th birthday.

The family never gets answers to the never-ending set of questions of what happened to him, or where he could be. And they think constantly about all the things that he is missing out on.

“At Christmas time, as you can imagine, it’s especially hard. He’s had two new grand-daughters born this year. It’s all these big milestones. It’s just never been the same,” Ms Duff said. “Christmas was a time we would always share with my dad. My parents were separ­ated so we would have two Christmases. My kids will never experience that now.”

Robert Duff was last seen on CCTV in Holloway Road

Ms Duff – a mother-of-five who lives in Camden Road – said she tells her children about him as much as she can “to keep his memory alive”, but says the family have had “no peace and no closure”.

She said: “Ours is different from grief. People grieve and have graves to visit and can move on. A lot of people find closure. We’ve had nothing.”

She says her father was a “bubbly” and “family-oriented” man who would be proud to see his daughters and grandchildren. “Me and my sister are really close,” Ms Duff said. “All those little moments are sad – we think oh dad would have liked this, dad would have been there.”

Mr Duff was last seen in CCTV footage withdrawing cash from an ATM outside Sainsbury’s in Holloway Road on January 12. But when the family reported Mr Duff missing, they felt the police were slow to act, having stereotyped him as a drug-user.

Ms Duff said: “I say this about all cases, when people go missing, there needs to be more triage. When a family is begging for it to be taken more seriously, they need to take it seriously. They missed an opportunity. I feel like we would have been a lot closer if the Met had taken it more seriously quicker.”

Police dive teams search the ponds on Hampstead Heath in 2018 when his daughters Charlotte and Stephanie made a national appeal for information (below)

After pressure from the family, the police upgraded their search for Mr Duff to a murder inquiry in 2018, and dredged local ponds, including on Hampstead Heath. But in the six years since, Ms Duff says they have heard nothing new from police.

“No calls, no updates. They feel that there’s not much they can do. I do understand they can’t magic things up, but it is frustrating because it is so long. We’re still invested in it,” she said.

Now, Ms Duff – who still puts up posters around Archway – is calling again for anyone with information to come forward. She said: “There’s so many daily reminders. It just gets worse and worse as the years go on. I feel guilty that we haven’t found him. People know what happened to my dad. Nobody in Archway in London disappears into thin air.”

She added: “I won’t stop and I won’t give up. It will never be the case that we’ll just accept it and move on.”

The Metropolitan Police did not respond to a request for comment, but have previously told the Tribune: “Investi­gating missing person reports is one of the most complex areas of policing and we know that behind every case is a concerned family who are desperate for answers about their loved one’s whereabouts.

“After Robert Duff was initially reported missing in January 2013 we carried out a number of enquiries, including CCTV checks and public appeals for information. Despite this, officers were unable to locate him and found no evidence to help them work out what had happened to Robert.

“The investigation into his disappearance contin­ues and we are committed to finding him. Detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command will continue to update Robert’s family with any key developments.”

Don’t forget our cousin Svet – we have to still have hope that he is out there alive somewhere

Svetlozar Yotov

THE cousin of a man who seemingly vanished into thin air after taking a walk along the canals has spoken of how his disappearance has left loved-ones “in limbo”, writes Isabel Loubser.

Svetlozar Yotov has been missing for more than three years, leaving his cousin Yasin Zlatev still searching for answers.

He told the Tribune: “It is difficult because you don’t know how you should be. They may still be there, they might not be. It leaves you and everyone else who cares about them in limbo. You don’t know what to do. Do you mourn? Do you not? It’s strange because I don’t think many people know someone who’s gone missing. You just think – how?”

Mr Zlatev added: “They say that hope dies last, and that’s true. But I think there’s only a few things in life that are uncertain and no one out there is going to say they like living in uncertainty.

“I guess that’s the only good thing, because we don’t know, there’s still hope.”

Mr Yotov is described by his family as “one of the those genuinely nice people” who was “measured, rational”, and a straight-A student at school.

His cousin and aunt have recently opened a bakery and cafe in South Harrow which sells eastern European pastries. “It was Svet’s dream to open these with us,” Mr Zlatev said.

The 31-year-old was living on Islington High Street in Angel when he vanished on October 9 2021, and was working part-time as a research assistant for an academic at the University of Westminster. When he didn’t turn up to babysit his younger brother, Mr Zlatev called the police to report him as missing.

“The first time I made the phone call, the person who picked up said ‘why are you even making this call?’ I thought that was highly insensitive.

“I wouldn’t be making this call if I didn’t have good reason to be making it,” he said.

Mr Zlatev said he feels that the police have been “more than useless” in their investigations.

He added: “In fact, they’ve been detrimental to an extent. It’s painful to know that the people who are supposed to be helping and are doing a terrible job at it.”

The Met tracked Mr Yotov’s phone to Waterloo station and, according to Mr Zlatev, even identified who was in possession of it.

“They knew who had my cousin’s phone and never went to interview him,” he said.

Mr Zlatev added: “The more I get into it, the more angry I get, the more annoyed.

“The police force are very overwhelmed, I get that. But, in my experience, it was like trying to pull blood from a rock. When I wanted information, they wouldn’t pick up the phone, they wouldn’t call me back.

“It’s a shame because you never know if things were different during a certain time, whether that would have changed anything.”

The search for Mr Yotov continues, with friends still trying to investigate the case now the police have gone quiet.

Mr Zlatev said: “Even now, his friends are still out there trying to look for him. They are still there trying.”

The Metropolitan Police did not respond to a request to comment.