"Sombre and reflective" letter claims to be from missing man

Monday 15 January 2018

A letter claiming to be written by Mikus Alps, the 33-year-old man who has been missing since last Monday, has been handed in at Guernsey Police station.

Mr Alps was reported missing the same day a car, registered to him, was found burnt out at Petit Bot, and it was later revealed there were skeletal remains inside the wreckage.

At a media conference today, Patrick Rice, Head of Law Enforcement in Guernsey, said they had received the letter "purporting to be from Mr Alps", following initial investigations into these matters.

"This was handed into Police Headquarters," he said, "Once again, we are keeping an open mind in relation to this document and all necessary forensic tests are being carried out. This requires support from specialist handwriting experts in the UK and again will take some time, potentially several weeks. While sombre and reflective in content, at this stage we cannot prove or disprove whether this letter was written by Mr Alps and, if it was, draw conclusions from it without further investigation and supportive evidence."

Mr Rice said he could not give any more details about the nature of the letter.

At the conference, it was also confirmed that a shotgun was found in Mr Alps' car when the wreck was being examined. It has also been confirmed a number of other items were found in the car, which are still being investigated.

Pictured: Mr Alps car, found burnt out at Petit Bot

One arrest has so far been made, as part of an ancillary investigation, but Mr Rice said they could not comment further on this matter as it is now a live court case:

"While it would be very easy to draw conclusions between the confirmation that skeletal remains were present and the vehicle being registered to Mr Alps, it does not mean that such an assumption is accurate. And I again come back to my original point, investigating officers are keeping an open mind and will continue to do so until the facts are determined. The identity of the deceased has not been confirmed."

Above: A Ukrainian news article which quoted a commander from the Ukrainian army giving his version of events. Mr Alps was allegedly involved with the force.

The media conference was held so Mr Rice could explain what Guernsey Police knows so far, what they don't know and what they are still seeking to establish. A number of speculations that have been made on social media locally, and also internationally, were also addressed. Mr Rice said the levels of speculation and rumour surrounding the investigation had been "unprecedented in a local context". 

"Regurgitating rumour on social media does not make it fact, no matter how many times it is repeated and I would encourage a calmer approach than we have seen in recent days. We are aware that Mr Alps has connections with a pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian movement. We are aware of comments in the Ukrainian media attributed to a commander suggesting he knows the facts, given that it is yet to formally confirmed whether Mr Alps is alive or deceased, there is no concrete evidence at this stage linking his involvement with this movement to his car being found burnt-out".

Mr Alps came to the island in 2005 and has since worked in the motor trade. Since he went missing, Guernsey Police's liaison teams have been working with his family. The Police said it still wanted to speak to anyone who may know information of Mr Alps' whereabouts. 

"This is a highly complex investigation and there is much work still to be done as we try to establish the full circumstances. We cannot rush it but the community can be assured that we will go where the evidence takes us, not speculation on social media," Mr Rice concluded.

 Mr Rice's full statement is linked below: