Dad missing for a decade without a trace misses chance to meet his biological mother

Peter Revell has been missing for a decade. supplied image

Peter Revell has been missing for a decade. supplied image

Published Aug 5, 2023

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Cape Town - A private investigator has been roped into the mysterious disappearance of a father who vanished a decade ago before being able to meet his biological mother who was found by his adoptive mother.

Now 10 years later, Peter Revell’s ex-wife, Mary Booysen, is restarting the quest to find him.

Private investigator, Johan Beukes, said Revell disappeared between December 2013 and January 2014 while in the vicinity of Macassar.

Beukes said all verification searches were done to determine whether Revell, 54, had made credit, if he had become ill, was imprisoned or even dead but all leads were negative.

“There was no movement on the XDS Credit Bureau system and Certified Fraud Examiner risk profile,” he said.

“I carried out enquiries at Tygerberg Hospital and another institution and at Salt River, Paarl and Stellenbosch mortuaries without any success.”

Revell’s estranged wife, Booysen who recently returned to South Africa while working as a live-in carer in the United Kingdom and is a qualified nursing ward administrator, said she decided to begin a new search for him because their daughter is in Matric and deserved to know what happened to her father.

Booysen explained that Revell had been adopted when he was just a baby and was raised by a loving family.

His adoptive mother had succeeded in finding his birth mother after his disappearance, and that both women had now passed on without having closure.

Revell’s adoptive mother and sister had died in a car accident after he went missing.

“In 2013 he began becoming the person that I had wanted him to be in our marriage, he would sit and help our daughter with her homework and we would have him over for Sunday lunches and things were getting better between us,” explained Booysen.

“In December I realised he was not responding to messages and I thought maybe he is out with family as it was the festive season.

“By January 2014, we had not heard from him and his family asked if he was with my daughter and I and we said no.

She explained that his adoptive mother never gave up hope in finding him.

“He was adopted when he was just a few weeks old,” she said.

“After he went missing, his birth mother traced his biological mother and learnt that she was just 14-years-old when she had him.

“His adoptive mother hoped everyday that he would come back home and would never have given up the search for him.

“I was introduced to his birth mother and she died a few years ago.

“His adoptive mother and sister also died in a car accident.

“Both mothers died without finding answers to what happened to him and he never got to meet his biological mother.”

Revell has been reported missing at the Macassar Police Station.

If you have any information about Revell’s whereabouts, please contact Beukes on 083 351 8491

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