Geoff Knupfer

It's a compromise, really, on their part, because they've come to the Commission and that's the Commission's service.

They're not going to get any judicial, if you want, or criminal...

convictions to for their cases but they are they have had their loved ones returned to them and they've got this I know we talk about closure it's an easy word to say and it means so much really but they are getting closure they can bury their loved one in the family grave you know they can go and grieve

What was it like meeting the families after a body was recovered?

It's a very difficult, very, very difficult process.

I think we have always ensured that whatever, and this was the rule, a ground rule really that I set when I got involved, that families would never hear about anything the Commission was doing from a source other than the Commission in the first instance.

So I didn't ever want the commission, the families, to pick up a newspaper or hear it on the radio or see it on television that we were looking for their missing loved one.

You know, we always made sure they were on board.

My colleague of the day, John Hill, was appointed as the family liaison officer.

So he kept in constant touch with the families.

Everything we did in their case, they knew about beforehand.

So I think no surprises for them other than obviously finding, eventually finding their loved ones.

And I guess it's double-sided really.

You've got this two sides of a coin where you've got this great elation and closure having found and returned their loved one to them.

But obviously it's confirmation that this individual was murdered and secretly buried and had been hidden for 20, 30 plus years, you know.

There was an air disaster at Manchester Airport in 1985, I think it was, where an aircraft, a 737, was taking off and one of the engines blew up and it caught fire.

And 50-odd people were suddenly burned in what was a fireball, really.

It was an appalling case.

So I was involved in that and after that happened, it was the first time, I guess the first time I'd ever heard of counselling.

And somebody with a bit of foresight, because there were such traumatic events, or it was a traumatic event, and the circumstances were traumatic.