The father of missing north-east man Shaun Ritchie now fears that his son has died.
The 20-year-old from Fraserburgh disappeared after a Halloween night out with friends, sparking a massive manhunt and police investigation.
Speaking publicly of his family’s anguish for the first time since his son went missing six weeks ago, Charlie Reid said he has all but lost hope of finding Shaun alive.
Last night he told the Press and Journal: “Until you actually live it, you cannot describe the pain. I’m numb in my body and my brain.
“We have to be realistic. If he did fall and was hurt and has been lying somewhere, after six weeks he’s not going to be alive.
“We just want him found and if it is his body we find he deserves to be laid to rest.
“It’s not something any parent should ever have to think about, burying your kid.
“No person should have to go through the torment and torture of not knowing where their loved ones are.”
The circumstances surrounding Mr Ritchie’s disappearance have never been fully revealed, but Mr Reid said the 20-year-old was drinking with friends at a pub in Fraserburgh on Halloween.
He then traveled with a small group to the Greenburn area north-west of Strichen.
Mr Ritchie was last seen in the early hours of Saturday November 1 and the search and rescue operation – which has included dozens of friends and family members as well as police dogs, divers, mountain rescue teams and a helicopter – has focused on this area.
Volunteers came from as far afield as Stonehaven and Elgin, with many people taking several days off work at a time to search.
In the early days of the operation several items of clothing worn by Shaun on the night of his disappearance were recovered from rough terrain.
That was the last major development in the case.
Mr Reid spent more than three weeks combing the area with the police until it became too heartbreaking to go back.
He said: “Some of that ground out there is peat bog. If you listen quietly you can hear the water running underneath you.
“He may have wandered into a bog and got stuck. But divers have been through all that.
“There is no way you’d get very far without the clothes that were found. People with full body waterproofs and walking sticks were struggling.
“I even understand one of the police officers broke his leg in four places – that’s how bad the ground is. And this is a specialist search team.”
Mr Reid is Shaun’s Ritchie’s biological father, but explained he has only been part of his son’s life for the last few years.
“Prior to this I hadn’t spoken to his mum in 18 years. Shaun had never heard of me until I contacted him when he was 16.
“We’ve spent these years getting to know each other and building a relationship.”
Describing his son as a man who “lived for music”, Mr Reid said the pair would sit up into the early hours listening to bands like Black Sabbath and The Talking Heads.
“He’s not a musician himself but he loved going to concerts. Hearing him speak you’d think he was in a band, but like myself he had no musical talent whatsoever.
“Maybe he liked to think of himself as a bit of a rebel but he wasn’t, it was all bravado and front.”
Mr Reid said Shaun regularly visited his house and grew close to his three half sisters, one of whom had drawn a ‘Welcome Home Shaun’ banner.
With the painstaking ground search throwing up no new leads, Mr Reid believes the best chance of finding Shaun lies with the public.
Issuing an emotional appeal for information, he said: “There could be somebody out there with one little bit of information which could change the whole search.
“It could be the silliest little thing but it all gets investigated. It could be one of his mates or someone who was in the pub and overheard where they were going.
“People need to talk to the police because this is torture. It’s a living nightmare.
“I would ask people to sit, think, imagine the pain and torture and torment that all Shaun’s family and friends are going through – ask yourself if that was your son, would you want people to come forward?”
Last night a police spokeswoman confirmed that the search for Shaun Ritchie is ongoing.
Mr Ritchie was last seen wearing dark grey skinny jeans, a grey hooded top and brown shoes.