Great-grandad Peter Baglin got up from the sofa one night and told his wife Michelle he was going out for a walk. It was December 28, just days after Christmas.
It was a bitterly cold evening, so he zipped up his grey jacket, put on his hat and stepped out of the door. A fit and healthy man who regularly enjoyed going out for long walks by himself in Boothstown and Worsley, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Minutes later, he was captured on CCTV in the local garage buying a small bottle of whiskey. He hasn't been seen since. In the words of his wife Michelle, he has vanished.
It has been a month now since Peter Baglin, dad of two, grandad of four and great grandad to one, disappeared.
But with each agonising day that passes, with no answers, no leads, and still no other confirmed sightings of him, Michelle and her broken family have no other option but to remain hopeful.
Michelle and Peter have been together almost 30 years. Tying the knot in 2001, the couple have always been 'best friends'. He was Michelle's 'rock' and 'backbone' two years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her fight made them stronger.
At the time he was reported as missing, Michelle said their relationship was 'the best it has ever been'. Their grown up children have now flown the nest and they were looking forward to the future - growing old together and being able to afford holidays away. He always tells her: "Michelle, you are my world."
'How can you think about the future, when your future isn't there beside you?'
"It is always there in the back of your mind. Even when you try and just carry on and be normal, you can't. It's a bit like a bereavement, but there's nothing at the end of it and no answers," Michelle told the Manchester Evening News of her ordeal.
"How can you live a normal life and think about the future, when your future isn't there beside you? I can't even think that far forward, I have to just take every day as it comes. It doesn't seem like four weeks since he went missing, it feels like just a couple of days.
"I'm not sleeping at all. It's at night when it's the hardest, because I see his dressing gown and head isn't on the pillow next to me. I am trying so hard to be thankful for what I've got, but we have never been apart for more than a couple of days. This is the longest we haven't seen each other for, it's heartbreaking.
"We are each other's best friends. On our days off, we will watch A Place In The Sun together and can stay there just laughing together and talking. Our relationship was the best it's ever been. The kids are grown up - I remember the days we couldn't afford a holiday, it was just £950 at a caravan park.
"I can't understand it. It's like every day you are living a nightmare, like you're here, but you're not. I keep asking myself if I have missed anything or not picked up on any signs.
"I've thought over and over about the night he went missing. There were no signs of him letting me know he was struggling, but I would have known. I'm his best friend and he is mine."
'I'll be home soon'
In the days that followed Peter's disappearance, Michelle orchestrated huge searches, involving friends, family and a devastated local community. In her own words, it was something that gave her purpose at the beginning.
Peter had left their Boothstown home and was last seen nearby, at the Texaco Garage on East Lancs Road, Mosley Common, at around 7.38pm on December 28. Michelle spoke to him on the phone later that evening, at around 8.15pm, where he told her he was on a walk to 'clear his head'.
He said he was going down to walk along Bridgewater Canal. She was worried, but he assured her he would 'be home soon'.
Days later, after police deployed huge search teams to the local area, trawling through woodland and with divers in the canal, a number of his belongings were found close to the embankment on Vicars Hall Lane. His hat, phone, bank cards, tobacco, house key and headphones have been recovered and are with police.
"I am at a loss - none of us can believe it. We are all just sitting and waiting for something to come up," Michelle added.
"It's as if he's just dropped off the face of the earth. We know nothing, I can't understand how in this day and age with all the technology, CCTV, doorbell cameras and alarms that there aren't any confirmed sightings.
"I had purpose at the start. I was getting up knowing we had a job to do. We had to find him. It's becoming harder as the time goes on. My children have gone back to work and they phone me every day asking for any news. It's heart-wrenching to tell them no."
The day he went missing (December 28) which Peter had booked off work to spend with Michelle after the couple had been working over the Christmas period, was 'normal', with the couple heading out to Screwfix to buy a new part for their toilet that had broken.
Despite police remaining in daily contact with Michelle and people phoning in to report possible sightings of Peter, she is still left desperate for answers.
'I don't understand how someone could just disappear'
"Police have told me people have been phoning in but that the sightings aren't viable. I never want to miss anything, so am always checking messages three or four times a day" Michelle said. "I am dreading going back to work and every time I leave the house it makes me anxious. I don't want to be out long because I am scared he is going to come back and I won't be there."
"It's mentally destroying me. I'm carrying on and I have to try and put it to one side, knowing that he must be out there somewhere. We always said we'd grow old together. I just never thought I'd be in a position like this. It's the not knowing that is the hardest part - I don't understand how someone could just disappear."
Peter, who works at Salford Royal Hospital alongside wife Michelle, was last seen wearing navy coloured joggers, walking shoe type trainers and a grey Mountain Equipment hoodie with a red zip and a hat. He is described as being 5ft 10ins in height, with grey hair, and a tattoo on the left side of his neck that says 'Michelle'. He is also wearing his wedding ring.
Following his disappearance, over a hundred people helped search for him, travelling as far as Glazebrook, Culcheth, Astley, Swinton, Kearsley and Irlam.
Michelle added: "We have knocked on doors, circulated it on Facebook and just done everything we can, but until we get a new sighting, we are left in limbo.
"When we've had possible sightings, we have gone and had a look at the different places but its been to no avail. I've looked at footage and can tell it isn't him even by the way he walks. It takes you to a high, and then when I realise it isn't him, I feel like I just get dropped and we are back to square one.
"We just want him home, I want him safe and I want some clarity."
Officers are asking anyone who may have seen Peter, or anyone with any other information regarding Peter's whereabouts, to contact them on the switchboard 0161 856 8351 or 0161 856 7857, via 101 or by speaking to the independent charity – Crimestoppers – anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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