SPECIALIST teams have begun searching an area at the side of Saltburn Bank as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Steven Clark.

The 23-year-old went missing in 1992 during a family walk along Saltburn promenade.

His parents, Charles and Doris Clark, were arrested when a cold case review was launched last September.

In February, they received the news they had been longing for – the police had ruled them out as suspects.

Officers will be in the area over the next few days looking through undergrowth from the bottom of the Valley Gardens to the top of a walkway near to the Spa Hotel, which is on a steep edge of the bank.

The senior investigating officer in the case, Shaun Page, has said that the searches are a line of enquiry by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Cold Case Review Team, and they are using modern-day forensic techniques.

He said: “The investigation into Steven’s disappearance still continues, with the latest searches of the area around Saltburn Bank. We will be in the area throughout this week and would like to thank the public for their patience as the searches take place.

“We continue to appeal for information to help us find Steven, who we believe has come to harm at the hands of a third party. The searches in Saltburn follow other’s that have been carried out as part of our ongoing investigation, and on information available to the Cold Case Review Team.”

Steven, who walked with a limp as a result of a childhood road accident, is said to have walked on the beach from Marske to Saltburn at around 3pm on the day he disappeared in December 1992.

The missing persons report says that he went to use the gents' public toilets near to the pier on the promenade in Saltburn, when his mother went into the ladies at the same time.

The author of a anonymous letter at the centre of a murder investigation has been identified by police but the family have been kept in the dark about the author's identity and what the person was claiming to know about Steven's disappearance.

  • Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or can provide information into the investigation team through 101.