“IT DEPENDS on the public producing that vital piece of information” – these were the words of a former chief superintendent talking about the case of a missing Basingstoke man.

Parm Sandhu, former chief superintendent for the Met Police, was speaking on Channel 5 programme Vanished which featured the case of missing Charles Knight from Basingstoke.

The live, weekly four-part series focuses on people who have gone missing across the UK.

READ MORE: Police to review evidence on missing Charles Knight

Presented by Dan Walker, he speaks directly to loved ones, families and friends as well as police and experts from the charity Missing People.

Charles was featured in the first episode when his mother Belinda Hooper spoke about her anguish after her son went missing on February 17, 2021.

She told viewers she last saw Charlie when he was standing at the back doorstep of her home in Burghclere before saying he was going out.

“I said ‘how long are you going to be, an hour?’ And he said ‘no, I won’t be that long’. An hour later I rang his brother and said ‘look, Charlie went out for a walk and he’s not come back’,” said Belinda.

Belinda called police and said they acted immediately because Charlie was categorised as ‘high risk’ due to depression.

However, despite officers carrying out an extensive search and investigation, including searching areas of woodland and following multiple lines of enquiry, the 32-year-old father-of-two has never been found.

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Speaking on Vanished, Belinda said family and friends helped with the search, spending hours every day out looking for him.

“It’s very hard to ascertain how someone can be here one minute and gone the next,” she said.

Describing Charlie, Belinda said: “He was a very compassionate person. He is very protective over me. He was a very good-looking lad, he had an amazing smile.”

The mum struggled to hold back tears when talking about what might have happened to her son, saying: “Every scenario goes through your head. Whether Charlie… whether Charlie took his own life. But the statistics are so high for a body to be found that you almost dismiss that.

"Then you think ‘oh my god did he have an accident while out walking?’ Then you think ‘did he get picked up that day? Is that the reason why he’s physically just gone?’

“We’ve searched and searched and nothing has come up, not a hat not his glove not a coat not his boot, not anything.

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“When you have someone who’s vanished like Charlie you go through the grief and you go through depression but it’s a different kind of grief than when you lose someone in the sense they’ve passed because you eventually get to accept it but with no closure and no answers. You go through every emotion.”

Belinda said the hardest emotion was the guilt, explaining: “I was the last person to see him that day, and some days you struggle and you try and get on with every day but all you really want is to go back to that day.”

Speaking to Dan Walker in the studio about Charlie, Ms Sandhu said his case will remain open until he is either found or located.

She added: “With Charlie, he may be going through some sort of mental health crisis. Although they’ve searched the local area and the woodlands, he may have got a lift to a different area and be off the radar. Because when people are going through that sort of crisis they’re not thinking sensibly so he could be found safe and well.

“It does depend on the public producing that vital piece of information, that key that could unlock that case.”

Anyone with information should contact Hampshire Constabulary on 101 quoting 44210059947 or Missing People on 116 000.

The third episode of Vanished: The Hunt for Britain's Missing People is on Channel 5 on Thursday, April 13 at 9pm, when any updates on missing people featured will be given.