'Please just let us know you're safe': Brother's plea as Leeds United fan remains missing

The brother of missing Leeds United fan Michael “Mick” Hewitt says his family are trapped in “pretty serious nothingness” as they wait to find out whether the retired supporter ever made it out of Barcelona.

Mick, 65, has now been missing for around 10 days. His last known electronic contact was a WhatsApp message to a close friend in the early hours of Sunday, June 21, when Mick was in Barcelona and his friend was at home in Leeds.

A beer-rating app Mick used also shows him checking into a bar in the city on Saturday, June 20, but there has been no trace of him since.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Mick’s brother Gary described the shock of realising something was wrong and the impact of seeing Mick’s photo appear on the national news as a missing person.

“We just saw his pictures come up on telly on BBC News, I think it was on the lunchtime news,” he said. “To see a family member, a picture that you’ve supplied, pop up on the telly as a missing person… it’s a hell of a blow.”

Mick had told his family he was travelling to the US via Barcelona to watch England play Ghana at the World Cup in Boston on June 23, but it’s unknown if he ever boarded the flight from Spain.

As a long-standing Leeds and England supporter, trips built around football were a big part of his life, especially since retiring, Gary said. Following his club and country was something he’d often organise himself, and he kept the precise details of his travel plans to himself.

“It’s not unusual for us not to hear from him until he gets back,” Gary said. “We were just happily going about our normal lives, fully expecting a picture to pop up on Facebook from his seat, with his flag outside some bar, and then suddenly life just sort of fell apart with one text saying, ‘Have you heard owt from your brother?’”

Unlike his regular European trips with a group of close friends, this journey appears to have been more last-minute and slightly different from what others were doing. Gary said Mick booked his trip later than many of his mates and chose to go via Barcelona, with a two-night stopover in the city before the onward flight to Boston.

The family’s main concern now is answering one simple question: did Mick ever actually leave Barcelona for his planned flight to Boston?

Gary says the family have been told that only Interpol can access passport and border data that would confirm whether he boarded his flight, and that progress has been slow despite repeated calls to the consulate and the Foreign Office.

“We just want someone to tell us whether he actually left Barcelona,” he said. “Are we looking in the right country? Are we concentrating on the right part of the world? It’s this pretty serious nothingness that’s killing us.”

Gary says the response from the football community has been overwhelming, with Leeds United fans, England supporters and fans of other clubs all sharing appeals and sending messages. West Yorkshire Police also confirmed they had received a missing persons report on Sunday, June 28.

His message to Mick, if he sees any of them, is simple: “Please just let us know that you’re safe. Everyone’s looking out for you.”