The sister of missing musician Richey Edwards talks to Lucy Jones about how she has coped for the past 22 years

When a loved one goes missing, the agony for those left behind is similar, but the responses can vary. Some families keep a child’s bedroom exactly the same or lay a place at the supper table every night. Others use age-enhancing photography software to see what the missing person would look like today, others visit a psychic. As years pass, but no body is found, one family will plant a tree in memory, while another may hold a memorial service in attempt to find closure.

“I’m sure it [a memorial] helps some people, but I wouldn’t do it,” says Rachel Edwards, the sister of Manic Street Preachers musician Richard James Edwards, known as “Richey” to music fans, who has been missing for 22 years. “It wouldn’t seem real, really. In the absence of a body, how can you say they’re dead? That’s the problem when you’re trying to compute it all in your head.”

The last time Rachel saw her older brother was in January 1995. It was the day the family buried their dog in Caerphilly, Wales. Richard took out his camera and took photographs of his mother, father and sister. His mood, says Rachel, was “completely flat”.