Mother ‘still hopes son will return’ after vanishing on trip

THE MOTHER of a Scottish former student who vanished in Mali eight years ago has said she still holds on to the hope that he is alive.

Pauline Velten – whose son Christian, a zoology graduate, disappeared in the West African country in April 2003 while retracing the steps of the 18th-century Scottish explorer Mungo Park – said she clings to the possibility he will return.

Her comments came as BBC2 Scotland screens a documentary on Park, who visited Africa in 1795. She said: “It’s very distressing but you just hope one of these days a miracle will happen and he will turn up. You always have hope. You never give up.”

Velten said her son’s Edinburgh University friends held a party each year on his birthday to keep his memory alive.

She said: “His friends have been absolutely fantastic. Without them I don’t know how I could have coped. They usually have a party on his birthday, about 30 of them get together. They help you get through the whole thing.”

Her son was so enthralled by Park’s story that he decided to recreate his journey, and travelled to West Africa in early 2003. He planned to travel through Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and make a documentary and write a book about it.

He disappeared in early April in Mali, missing his flight home in July. None of his belongings has been found. That October, the Veltens sent a private detective to Mali, but no trace of the 28-year-old was found. A year later Sussex police travelled to the area but also made little progress.

Velten was last seen alive outside a café on the outskirts of the town of Bamako. He last spoke to his parents on 23 March, 2003, when he phoned to wish his mother a happy birthday.