After three months missing, man is found just before TV appeal

Police hail power of press after their own newspaper leads to the discovery

The police have hailed the power of the media after a man listed as missing more than three months ago was found shortly after his case was highlighted in the force's own newspaper - and just before a television appeal was to start.

Officers with the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) had prepared a one-minute appeal to run as part of a regular segment at the end of the critically acclaimed US show Without a Trace, which premieres on TVB Pearl tonight at 10.35pm.

But less than an hour before a ceremony to launch the show yesterday, the missing person - Briton Veron David, 37 - was found alive and well on Hong Kong island. That left senior officers scrambling to find a new missing person case to profile after the show.

'It goes to show the power of the popular media,' said MPU Senior Inspector Lucia Lam Sau-wah. 'This man was reported missing by his family in the United Kingdom more than three months ago.'

Officers had 'exhausted all avenues' in trying to determine whether he had been abducted, murdered, committed suicide or simply run away, she said.

His case was recently profiled in Offbeat, the internal police newspaper, which led to the 11th-hour breakthrough yesterday.