Volunteers help find missing persons
When a person goes missing, the police can call on volunteers for help through the Voluntary Rescue Service Vapepa. It has more than 13,000 volunteers around Finland and more than 1,000 emergency response groups. In Espoo, operations are coordinated by Vapepa’s Espoo local committee. It is an advisory committee that currently comprises more than ten different associations.
Mikko Korhonen first participated in Vapepa’s activities in the 1980s and joined the organisation again in 2010 because he wanted to find a meaningful hobby for himself and his dog.
“Dogs are often crucial in searching for missing people. Any breed can help in the search as long as it is trained for the work. My own dog wasn’t up to the task in the end because it was too sensitive,” says Korhonen.
Korhonen recently trained to be a Vapepa leader and leads volunteer activities during searches in cooperation with the authorities.
Anders Blomberg will always remember a search he participated in during the early 2000s. He had just joined Vapepa’s activities when they were notified about a missing person.
The missing person was known to have diabetes, so the search was exceptionally extensive. After several days, the missing man was found, but sadly he was already dead.
“The case was special to me because the man was my former teacher. We don’t always find out more about what happened for privacy reasons, and we are bound by confidentiality. It’s part of this hobby,” Blomberg says.
Blomberg and Korhonen are active volunteers for Vapepa. The Voluntary Rescue Service Vapepa is a consortium of 54 organisations and communities coordinated by the Finnish Red Cross. Vapepa helps the authorities in searches, especially when a large rescue crew is needed.
Helping the police
The decision to start a search is always made by the police, and they will ask Vapepa to help if necessary. The search for a missing person is started quickly if the person has an illness or if there is reason to suspect that something has happened to them.
Searches are also quickly started for missing children and young people. Sometimes the missing person is found safe and sound at a friend’s house. Blomberg asks parents to get their children’s friends’ phone numbers to avoid unnecessary searches.
On average, one person is reported missing in Uusimaa every week. The searches often concern elderly people and people who have gone out to pick mushrooms or berries.
The number of people who participate in a search ranges from 10 to 150 depending on the circumstances. Movies often show massive search parties gathering in fields, but that is not how things work in reality. Searches are usually carried out in groups of three people and last 60 to 90 minutes per area.
Each area is swept twice by two different groups. If the first sweep covers the area from north to south, the second sweep is carried out from east to west.
“Sometimes the media reports that a search has ended without results. However, searches are never pointless: even if no one is found, we know that we have gone through that particular area. That’s a result in itself,” Blomberg points out.
A successful search is, of course, one in which the missing person is found.
“The best result is obviously finding the missing person alive. If the person has died, that information is also important for the relatives because they no longer have to live with uncertainty,” Korhonen says.
How to get involved in search activities?
- The Voluntary Rescue Service Vapepa was founded in 1964 and is open to everyone.
- Searchers need to be motivated and willing to help those in need.
- A basic level of mental and physical fitness is enough to help with a search.
- Searchers are required to take the Vapepa basic course.
- In addition to search work, Vapepa volunteers can give first aid or psychological support or work as air rescuers, traffic controllers, maritime rescuers, food suppliers, rescue dog handlers and communications volunteers.
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Text: Marjo Tiirikka.
This article was originally published in the Espoo-lehti magazine 1/2025. Read other articles in the Espoo-lehti.
Correction: On 3 April, the lead paragraph was corrected to state that in Espoo, operations are coordinated by Vapepa’s Espoo local committee. The committee comprises Espoon Maanpuolustusnaiset, Espoon Reserviläiset, Espoo’s local branches of the Finnish Red Cross, Espoon Latu ja Polku, Espoon Pelastuskoirayhdistys, Länsi-Uudenmaan Pelastuskoirayhdistys, Kauniaisten Pelastuskoirat, VRG Pelastuskoirat, Porkkalan Radiokerho and Kauniaisten Radiokerho.