James Holt reports on a missing person case that remains an unsolved mystery.
07:16, 27 Jul 2025Updated 07:55, 27 Jul 2025
It has been almost 17 years since anyone saw or heard from Jordan Ratcliffe(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Jordan Ratcliffe had been dropped off in Manchester city centre by his auntie. She waved him goodbye, not knowing it would be the last time she would see him.
She had parked up on Tib Street and told him to ring her after he had settled into a hostel he was due to stay at – but the call sadly never came.
It was August 31 2008 – almost 17 years ago. But Jordan, then aged 16, hasn’t been seen or heard from since. The missing persons case remains open, but Greater Manchester Police said there are still no updates in connection with his disappearance.
Jordan, who was well known in the close-knit Miners estate in Moston, had agreed to spend some time at a hostel in the city centre after his grandfather became ill. He was only carrying a small black rucksack containing a packet of crisps and £5 in cash.
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He was described as well-known and well-liked. The Manchester United FC supporter was a student at the North Manchester School for boys.
After parting ways with his auntie Kimberley Pierce, who had cared for him since being just 20 months old, the teenager was then due to visit the Men’s Direct Hotel, but he never arrived nor was heard from again.
Jordan Ratcliffe has not been seen since 2008
What followed was a major police investigation into the teenager’s disappearance. He was reported as missing by his loved ones days later, on September 8.
Multiple public appeals were launched, including directly from Jordan’s aunt Kimberley to the public. As police enquiries intensified, it was found that he could not be spotted on CCTV within the city centre because of the gap in time between his last sighting on Tib Street and the missing report being made.
The Manchester Evening News has repeatedly followed the puzzling case over the years. Three years after his disappearance, another desperate plea was issued by Kimberley, who pleaded with Jordan to get in touch.
Numerous appeals were shared in the years following Jordan’s disappearance(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“He was perfectly normal, there was no bad feeling or anything like that,” she said in 2011. “I just don’t know what happened to him.
“Jordan, I hope you’re ok. We all really love and miss you and can’t understand why you’re doing this. Please just contact us to let us know you are safe.”
In 2015, police issued digital computer-generated images of what Jordan may have looked like years later. A £20,000 reward, offered to anyone who could provide information to help find him, still stands today.
Jordan Ratcliffe, pictured when he was 16, and how he may have looked in 2015
There were multiple reports of possible sightings that led nowhere. A sighting in Liverpool in 2012 was discounted, and further sightings in London were never confirmed. Police searched part of the capital a number of times, including in Covent Garden and well-known homeless charities.
In 2010, a British Transport Police PCSO stopped a young man matching Ratcliffe’s appearance at London’s Waterloo station. He told the officer that he was from Manchester and the notable sighting generated extensive enquiries in the London area amid concerns that Jordan was sleeping rough however the information led nowhere.
Four years later, police visited Portsmouth following a reported sighting, however no information was found. And in 2017, when the case was passed on to Greater Manchester Police’s murder team, a section of the Rochdale Canal, close to the Piccadilly Village apartments, was drained as part of the search for Ratcliffe, though no body was found.
Since then, there have been no new leads on the case. The case was made dormant and passed on to GMP’s cold case unit, but remains open.
Jordan is described as white, of medium build, tall with short ginger hair and brown eyes. He was last seen in 2008 wearing a black and grey jacket, black Nike tracksuit bottoms and black trainers.
During an emotional interview with the M.E.N in 2015 Kimberley said it was out of character for Jordan to go missing and described him as ‘a nice lad, very outgoing, spoke to a lot of people’. Back in 2008, at the time of his disappearance, he had been looking for a job and ‘seemed happy’.
“It’s been so hard not having him here,” she said. “It never gets any easier. It just sits at the back of your mind.
“Every time you hear about someone found in the canal, you think ‘is that Jordan?’ and you’re waiting for a phone call or a knock at the door.
“We just don’t understand why he would just disappear.”
Anyone with information contact Greater Manchester Police or the non-emergency number 101. Alternatively you can call the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.