Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a body recovered from the River Thames in London last month is believed to be that of missing year-old Samaria Ayanle. According to the Met, the circumstances surrounding her death are being treated as unexplained, pending further inquiries, and formal identification is still pending. Later that morning, a body was discovered near Putney Pier. The tragedy adds to a concerning number of young Black individuals who have gone missing and been found near bodies of water in the UK since including Blessing Olusegun , Richard Okorogheye, Olisa Odukwe , Kayon Williams , and Taiwo Balogun.
Many are asking questions about whether there is a pattern in these disappearances, and notably, why media coverage is minimal. It's noteworthy that in cases where white women go missing, there is often intense public outcry. According to social scientists, this can be described best as missing white woman syndrome. The level of reporting are considerably higher, and the cases seem to progress significantly quicker with authorities.
Sarah Everard was missing for nine days before her body was discovered, and Gabby Petito, 10 days. However, Blessing Olusegun, 21, didn't receive the same level of media coverage when she went missing. Her body was discovered on a beach in Bexhill-On-Sea on the East Sussex coast shortly after her disappearance. After a one-day inquest, her cause of death was determined to be drowning and deemed non-suspicious. Despite this, her case received minimal attention, prompting friends and family to launch a petition calling for the case to be reopened.
To date, the petition has garnered over 50, signatures. Despite this, publicity appeals for missing white individuals outnumbered those for missing black individuals by nearly three to one.
At the peak of attention from the media, the Nicola Bulley investigation generated 6, news articles globally in a single day and the same cannot be said for Blessing or Joy. We should be focusing on the disproportionate rate of missing Black people, and the response from authorities, not detracting with scaremongering theories online. That is why we are funding the National Police Chiefs' Council to research issues of disproportionality and discrimination in the police response to missing persons investigations.
