The horror of losing a loved one is cruelly compounded when there is no body to lay to rest and gain a sense of closure.

Ever since Marie McCourt’s daughter Helen was abducted and murdered in 1988, convicted killer Ian Simms has refused to reveal where he disposed of her body. Marie has campaigned for a change in the law so that killers who remain silent about the fate of their victims would be refused parole, and have to serve full life sentences.

Since 2002, prisoners convicted of murder are eligible for parole even if they refuse to express remorse. Marie’s online petition gained more than 340,000 signatures and gained widespread support when it was debated by MPs last October. A second reading was scheduled for this week.

There are thought to be about 38 families in the same position as McCourt – Moors murderer Ian Brady, has consistently refused to say where his final victim Keith Bennett was buried, and Keith’s mother died heartbroken after years of fruitless searching.

This feeling of utter despair in the absence of answers is echoed by the Kate and Gerry McC﻿ann, who have spent millions searching for their daughter who went missing in 2007. They have lost a libel case against the Portuguese detective who initially led the search for Madeleine, and who has been highly critical of the couple. His book, although distasteful, has been ruled admissible by the Portuguese Supreme court on the grounds of free speech.

The McCanns, like Peter Lawrence, the father of missing chef Claudia, who disappeared eight years ago, have nothing to sustain them now but hope and have set up a charity, Missing People.

A group of parents whose children have vanished have formed a choir that will appear in the first round of Britain’s Got Talent singing a song written by Peter Boxell, whose 15 year old son disappeared in 1988.