Michael Dixon - Contributed

It could have been a tale from a Louis L'Amour western about the mythical Sackett clan. One member of the family finds himself in trouble, the odds stacked against him, and the male relatives converge on the scene, loaded for bear and itching to tackle all comers.

However, the concern and the gathering in Tamarindo, Guanacaste province, Costa Rica, were about the only similarities after Michael Dixon simply vanished on Sunday, October 18 (which his family believes) and Monday, October 19 (the official date utilised in the investigations).

There were no clattering hooves, as Michael's brother David and cousins Clive Stephenson, Anthony Dixon and Julian Dixon flew to Costa Rica from London, Savannah (Georgia, United States), Toronto and Kingston, respectively. There were no confrontations, wisps of gunsmoke, barely there trails to ferret out.

And of Michael Dixon, there was and still is no sign. No blue hotel towel that he was supposed to have left the Villas Macondo Hotel with, no shorts or T-shirt that he was reportedly wearing, no body.

Simply nothing.

Julian Dixon and Clive Stephenson got to Costa Rica on October 30, a day after David, Anthony getting there in mid-November. There are doubts about Michael actually leaving the hotel on October 19, Julian Dixon saying from Kingston, "there is a lot of evidence that says he went missing on Sunday night, not Monday".

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The hotel's owners went to the local police on Wednesday, October 21, and the investigative arm, the OIJ, the following day. The OIJ took pictures of Michael's hotel room on Monday, October 26. Julian said the hotel's owners had not touched the room and the bed had not been slept in, pointing to a Sunday night and not Monday morning disappearance.

The quartet's exhaustive - and exhausting - efforts to find their relative in the small town over a period of weeks were futile. David was the last to leave on November 27. Informal street interviews, searching the coast and two estuaries outside the town, air search by light plane, canines used by a search team from the US, checks at hospitals, police stations and morgues - all turned up no trace of Michael Dixon.

They stuck together and were always on their guard. "We spoke to everyone. The rich, the poor, the homeless, the Red Cross, drug dealers," Julian said. The Red Cross helped for two days.

David, Clive, Anthony and Julian all stayed at the Villas Macondo, a far way and a far cry from the family gatherings in Jamaica. Michael Dixon, a British national working as a magazine editor in Belgium, is the son of Jamaican Hubert Dixon, who migrated to England, and his wife Lynn. "He (Michael) is my father's nephew," Julian explained. "They came down every two years at one point. I know them as long as I know myself."

His grandparents are from Clarendon.

"This has really hit hard on two different levels," Julian told The Sunday Gleaner. There is not knowing if Michael is alive or dead and also three years ago, there was the tragic loss of the youngest cousin in the family.

Julian also describes his cousin as a very "safe" person, not prone to taking risks. An experienced traveller, he had visited other countries before, including Thailand, doing the same kind of wandering cross-country exploration he was on in Costa Rica, staying a few days in one place and then moving on.

There is at least one element of the Tamarindo that was not safe, though, as the lifeguards were off duty over payment issues at the time Michael disappeared. And Julian said "there is just this level of nonchalance".

This is despite Michael Dixon being the third tourist to go missing in Guanacaste in eight months. David Gimelfarb from Illinois, USA, went missing on August 11 and Craig Snell from Florida vanished on February 18. Australian student Brendan Dobbins went missing on March 4, 2005, during the spring-break period. Bones found in the mangroves in mid-June are thought to be his, based on dental evidence.

Except for Gimelfarb, all the disappearances took place on the coast and the cousins searching for Michael Dixon actually met with Gimelfarb's parents, who were in Guanacaste for three and a half months looking for their child.

unchanged situation

Julian left Costa Rica on November 13, the situation unchanged from when he went there. "It felt like I had failed family and failed him," he said. "We were not one step closer. We were still at square one. For us to not have any idea, it still hurts. It is hard to get up and focus on other things. Just the little things, like watching TV, he can't do that right now. Even being back, speaking to David, speaking to Clive, it is hard to lay your head down, get some rest."

The investigation is still open, but if there is no progress it won't be forever. The family is working through the Lucie Blackman Trust as has also set up Help Find Michael Dixon on Facebook.

"It is hard to think of someone of good spirit, a good heart, to be snatched up away from you," Julian Dixon said. At Christmas, Michael and David would normally visit their parents in France and Julian said "especially at a time like now, Christmas, it is leaving a hole in our hearts".

"We can't let this fade. We need to know what happened to Michael," he said.