It has now been more than three weeks since Aberdeen teenager Liam Smith disappeared without a trace.
All throughout Aberdeen city centre, in the places he was last seen, signs of his absence put up in shop windows and stuck to lampposts serve as a constant reminder of the desperate search for the 16-year-old being undertaken by police and his family.
The Missing Person posters, with a small picture of the schoolboy wearing a kilt jacket and CCTV footage of him with his distinctive North Face camouflage backpack, have been circulated throughout the city and Aberdeenshire since he was reported missing on November 17.
More than 140 sightings have been reported by the public and subsequently eliminated by officers searching for Liam.
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And now, 19 days since the last confirmed sighting of Liam, the Press and Journal has recreated the final confirmed movements of the missing 16-year-old to help jog the public’s memory with an online video.
The 6ft 4in teen is believed to have left his home on Queen’s Road at around noon on the day he went missing, before he was spotted by security cameras at around 12.28pm at the McDonald’s on Union Street, across the road from the graveyard.
Between his visit to McDonald’s and arriving at Union Square at about 1pm, he visited the Sainsbury’s on the corner of Guild Street and Carmelite Street to purchase Lucozade, Jaffa Cakes and a Dairy Milk.
After he entered the shopping centre, he then took the 202 Stagecoach bus from the bus station at 1.11pm, purchasing a bus ticket for Raemoir Road in Banchory – around 20 miles away in the Deeside area.
But after he boarded the bus, police have so far been unable to say for sure exactly where he went next.
Following reports from one passenger on board the bus who said they thought they saw Liam get off the bus in the Crathes area, police have been scouring the surrounding area and estate close by ever since.
The areas where he is confirmed to have been seen – Union Square, McDonald’s, Sainsbury’s and the bus station – have all been decked with Liam’s missing person posters to encourage anyone who may have seen the teenager last to phone the police with any information they have.
But the search for clues is far from limited to the city centre.
Posters have been stuck up on bus stops, notice boards and more all the way out to Crathes along Deeside and elsewhere in Aberdeenshire.
The police have asked anyone with any information about Liam to phone the police on 101.
This video is a reconstruction of events based on information provided by Police Scotland on Liam’s last known movements.
It is has been created to aid searches for Liam and does not intend to make claims, promises or guarantees about his current whereabouts.
With thanks to Police Scotland, Union Square Shopping Centre and The North Face.
