A MISSING teenager has been described by his family as a ‘happy, normal 19-year-old enjoying university life’.
The comments were made by silver commander for Thames Valley Police, Superintendent Jim Weems, as he made a renewed appeal to help find Daniel Williams.
The student was last seen just after midnight on Thursday morning, after leaving the student union bar on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading.
Daniel is white, 6ft tall with a slim build and short light brown hair and blue eyes.
He was last seen wearing black or blue jeans, a black hooded top and black shoes, He was wearing a black T-shirt underneath with a distinctive white motif on the front.
Supt Weems said: “His disappearance is completely out of character, and we are extremely concerned for his welfare.”
On Sunday, the fourth day of the search, police made renewed efforts to try and trace Daniel.
Students friends delivered leaflets bearing Daniel’s face and information about him to student areas including streets across Erlegh Road.
And helping the police search on campus were volunteers from the Berkshire Lowland Search & Rescue. The team have been supporting officers from response teams and neighbourhood teams from Thames Valley Police, along with the National Police Air
Service (NPAS) in the search over the past few days.
Supt Weems said: “We remain open-minded as to the circumstances behind Daniel’s disappearance, but naturally, as the search enters its fourth day, our concern for him is growing.”
And in a press briefing, he said that the search had initially focused on the area around the students union and its bar, 3Sixty, as well as the immediate vicinity, an area known as Whiteknights Lake.
The lake is currently frozen due to the snow that has fallen since Thursday evening and the pathway around the lake is icy.
Supt Weems said: “Thames Valley Police have been searching the grounds of Reading university and the surrounding area and will continue to do so until Daniel is found.
“A lot of police officers on site in last few days looking for Daniel, also many, many more officers that you can’t see for our investigation task behind the scenes.”
Daniel was attending the 3Sixty bar’s Wednesday Union night, an evening for students which runs from 10pm through to 2am.
Supt Weems said: “Daniel attended a Student Union function at Reading University on Wednesday, 30th of January in the evening.
“We know he remained at the Student Union until the early hours, at about 1 o’clock we think he left the bar at the Student Union.
“We started focusing on the last areas we knew where Daniel had been, so the Student Union, the vicinity of the area where we are at the moment and the wider area.
“Reading University campus is a large area so although we’ve been searching this area to try and find Daniel, naturally as we go through the enquiry, we’re working further afield obviously to find Daniel.”
And the acting vice-chancellor of the University of Reading, Professor Robert Van de Noort, also spoke at the briefing, however he was constrained in what he could say and Daniel’s family have asked for privacy.
He did reveal that the University was attempting to offer help and support to those affected.
“What we have been doing is we have systems in place and people who are able to talk to his housemates and students but I can’t really say much more than that,” he said.
READ MORE: Berkshire Search and Rescue lead hunt for teenager Daniel
And Supt Weems was keen to ensure that Daniel felt he could come forward without any fear of repcurcusions.
“Daniel, please call us if you see this video.
We want to make sure you understand you are in no trouble whatsoever. We only want to make
sure you are safe and well and that we return you to your family. Please call us on 101, go to a police station or ask someone to call us. We’d love to hear from you.”
Anyone with information about Daniel’s whereabouts is asked to call Thames Valley Police on 101 and quote incident number 1307 (31/1).
