A Plymouth family are continuing to search for their much-loved son and brother after he mysteriously vanished. Daniel Mizzi was captured on CCTV in Cornwall seven weeks ago - but he hasn't been seen since.
His loved ones are getting more worried as each day passes, with mum Karran Minchinton and brother Jake Hughes ‘unable to sleep’. Police enquiries continue into the 35-year-old's disappearance, with the last confirmed sighting at 1.38pm on December 8.
CCTV showed him walking towards the coastal path at Porthmeor Beach, St Ives in Cornwall. Karran, 57, and Jake, 30, believe Daniel could be "hiding", or have fallen ill. They say they believe he planned to come return home on the day he went missing, as he had a return train ticket and had taken his phone charger and shower gel. They've urged him to come home, or just get in touch to say he's ok.
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She said: “I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. We don’t know if he’s had an accident. We can’t rule that out. We just need to know - we need something from after December 8 (the date Daniel was last seen) but we’ve had nothing.
“I think he could be hiding, there is a chance that he could have fallen, but as a mother I just don’t think he’s dead. If anyone can hide for a length of time like this, it would be Daniel, he’s incredibly intelligent. If he's out there, if at any time he will contact me it will be on my birthday - in February. We don’t spend birthdays apart.”
Daniel had a get together with his family in November 2023, on Jake’s birthday, just weeks before he disappeared. Karran said that Daniel seemed ‘absolutely fine’ and that in the months before he disappeared ‘he was in a good mood and upbeat’.
The last time Karran had any contact with Daniel was on Wednesday, December 6 2023. She said on that day ‘he seemed fine' and he was joking on the phone.
Two days later he was captured on CCTV at 1.38pm walking towards the coastal path at Porthmeor Beach.
Karran said: “It seems a strange place to go, even if he was going to meet someone, to have no contact for all of this time is the worrying thing. At this stage, we’ve got no proof that he actually went on the coastal path."
The South West coast path towards Clodgy Point gets ‘very dangerous’ in places especially during wet weather, Jake said. Him and his mum have visited the location to try and find clues to Daniel's disappearance.
Karran said: “We don’t think Daniel would have walked it, he’s not a risk taker, he's very methodical and doesn’t like getting dirty, he’s a very presentable person. He also has a fear of the water and doesn’t like to swim even though he was taught as a child. He took shower gel and his phone charger, he also bought a return ticket, so we feel like he planned to come back."
Jake said: “There was nothing behaviour wise leading into this and the CCTV image showing how he was dressed, how he was presenting himself that - nothing suggests or hints that his state of mind or mood was down at the time that he went missing."
Daniel is keen on walking, writing, reading and he had been working as a freelance writer in the months prior to his disappearance. Karran describes Daniel as an introvert, although with people he knows he can be ‘a chatterbox’.
Missing Daniel is described as a white male, around 5ft 6ins tall and is of very thin build. He has short light brown curly hair and stubble. He was wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans, brown shoes and had a cross body bag on.
Jake said: “The night before he went missing, we shared some Jammy Dodgers biscuits and talked about gaming, wrestling and all seemed fine. The next day I noticed a pair of his shoes were missing and I texted him at 6.23pm on December 8, but there was no reply. The next day (Saturday December 9) he still hadn’t returned.”
The family became extremely concerned as this staying away from home is ‘completely out of character’.
In a plea to Daniel, Karran said: “Please just come home Daniel, or even let us know you’re ok. It doesn’t matter whatever problems you’ve got, we can sort them out as a family. Please get in contact, that’s all I want, I want to hear from my boy.”
Jake said: “Please get yourself home, it’s been too long and it’s annoying being in an empty house all the time, we don’t care about money problems or if there’s any other problems. We’ve never judged you and never will. We just want you back in the house, we can get through this and work out the money side of things.
“Don’t be afraid, if you’ve still got your phone with you, you’ve got my number and you probably know my email address off by heart as you set it up when I was a kid.”
The family have set up a GoFundMe fundraiser so they can ‘continue with the search’ alongside the police investigation and to ‘try and keep the house going’ that Karran’s two sons share. Jake is under financial pressure as he shares a flat with Daniel and wants to ensure all bills are covered while hoping for his return.
You can donate to the fundraiser to help Daniel's family here.
Police are keen to speak to anyone in the area who may have CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage, and hasn’t already been spoken to by officers. Anyone who sees Daniel is asked to contact police on 999 quoting 50230321378.
