120 Icelanders Have Disappeared Since 1945

120 people in Iceland have disappeared without a trace since 1945, RÚV reports. This matter was brought to light in a yearly report from the National Commissioner of the Police. Most striking of all is there was only one woman amongst the missing.

Pulling together the data was no small effort. While Icelandic law requires local police stations to report disappearances to the National Commissioner within three months of the first record of someone going missing, many of these records are still in paper form, necessitating having to pour over voluminous archives. Further, a lot of the older records fell short on more detailed information than would be required today.

In addition, the police are not the only ones who complete missing persons reports; rescue squads also maintain such records, amongst other involved parties.

The circumstances of how these people went missing varies, but the records do contain a large number of seamen who went missing at sea. What percentage of the total number of missing persons these seamen comprise is not disclosed.