Reward upped for information on fate of British father and son who mysteriously vanished in southern Spain in 2019
A REWARD for information linked to the fate of a British father and son duo who mysteriously vanished on the Costa del Sol seven years ago has been increased.
The charity Crimestoppers has upped its reward from £20,000 to £30,000 for any new details that lead to a conviction in the case of Daniel and Liam Poole, from West Sussex, who police believed were murdered in southern Spain in 2019.
The pair hired a grey Peugeot with registration 0254 KTM after flying to Malaga on March 31 that year.
The hire car was later found abandoned and the father and son have not been seen since.
Luggage and passports belonging to Daniel, aged 46 at the time of his disappearance, and Liam, 22, were discovered in their hotel room at the plush Valle Romano golf resort in the Costa del Sol town of Estepona.
Sussex Police took over the investigation from Spanish authorities in 2022 and classified it as a murder case.
In 2024, officers arrested two men on suspicion of murder – a man in his 30s from West Sussex and another in his 40s from the Merseyside area.
However, the pair were later released.
Lauryn Poole, Daniel’s daughter and Liam’s sister, urged anybody who knew something, ‘however small’, to get in touch with Crimestoppers.
“Not a day goes by when we don’t think about Danny and Liam,” she said.
“Living without answers has been agonising. We need to know the truth, for them and for our family’s peace of mind. Your information could be the key to finally giving us justice we have waited almost seven years for.”
Annabelle Goodenough, Sussex regional manager at Crimestoppers, said the reward had been increased to ‘encourage anyone holding back to come forward’.
Anyone contacting the charity must request a reward code during their first contact to be eligible for the money.
Family sources told the Olive Press in 2019 that they ‘knew the pair were dead’ and suspected the Pooles had been murdered in a botched drug deal gone wrong.
“We will never see them again, they were obviously doing something illegal and it’s gone south,” the source said.
“They’d been going there back and forth, it’s obvious they were involved in something dodgy.”
The family received a ransom demand for over €100,000 the day after Daniel and Liam disappeared.
The ransom was never made public but police traced the call to a phone in Morocco.
Daniel and Liam made three trips to Malaga in the four months before they vanished.
Liam’s grandmother, Kathy Catney, told The Times in 2019: “I think [Liam’s] dad got into some bother and Liam got caught in the crossfire.
“We always suspected [Daniel] was up to no good but we just didn’t ask questions,” she added.
The men were linked to a gang associated with notorious fugitive Kevin Parle – one of Britain’s most wanted criminals.
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