THE DEVASTATED family of a 21-year-old who has gone missing have said they are praying for him to finally return home to them.

Upale Kaloshi, from Lewisham, has been missing since 9am and was last seen on Saturday (20 May) in the local area. Police say he has been linked to Dover.

In a Twitter appeal (24 May) by Greenwich Police, they are now desperately searching for the young man who failed to turn up to his night shift at an Amazon warehouse in Dartford.

Lukundo Kaloshi, 24, told The Voice the shock of her brother’s disappearance has caused the family to lose weight and is “completely opposite” from what they know is his usual character. 

“I think we’ve exhausted all we can. All we can do is pray. There’s a sense of helplessness. We’ve left it over to the police to take control,” she says.

“Everywhere he goes he’s a very likeable character. He’s not irresponsible or anything. He updates everyone…he’s just very level headed. This is completely opposite from what he’s normally like.”

Upale is understood to have last been wearing a black Nike backpack and black Nike Vapour Max trainers and his 6ft2. 

He was sleeping at home before his parents and three siblings went to church, but was not there anymore when they returned at 1pm. 

Lukundo says the family assumed that Upale had gone out for the day or would be back in the morning after his night shift around 7am.

The former dental nurse failed to return home, prompting the worried family to call his phone which rang through with no answer. Uphale is described as “never missing a day of work,” but the family later discovered he had not turned up for his shift at the warehouse. 

They reported him missing soon afterwards.

Lukundo, an applied behaviourist analyst, says the police search for her brother has progressed in recent days due to rising media attention on the case.

However, she says if the police had acted sooner when they first raised the alarm, they “would have possibly found him by now”.

“[The police] when they picked up the phone, they knew it was us calling that’s how many times we tried to keep pressing [the police to act], because at the time, when he was reported missing, his phone was still ringing and we assumed it’s quite an easy thing to literally just track his phone,” she says.

However, the police said because he is considered an adult with no history of mental health issues it did not meet the threshold of seriousness until he had not been found for around forty-eight hours. 

Lukundo says that by then, her brother’s phone was not on anymore.

Now almost a week since he has been missing, the family have been resharing news about his disappearance across social media. Lukundo adds that they have reached out to the MP for Greenwich about the case who they say has been supportive. 

“I think everybody has lost weight now. Because food is the last thing that we’re thinking about. It’s been hard to sleep.  How can we be comfortable sleeping knowing that our brother…[is missing.] We don’t know what state he could be in. It’s a very uncomfortable thing to be feeling right now,” says Lukundo.

“But the present support of people really has encouraged us to keep going. When we’ve not been able to do anything, people have come and prayed or like they are just cooking us food, because that is the last thing that we’re thinking of. 

She adds: “It’s not about us right now. We’re just focusing on him and trying to make sure he’s fine.”

Greenwich Police have urged anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 999 with the reference number 3709.

The Voice has approached Greenwich Police for comment.