Family won't give up searching for missing Shropshire man Daniel Hodgin

While families come together across the county to mark the festive season and welcome in the new year, there is "nothing to celebrate" until the 20-year-old comes home, say his distraught parents.

Dennis Hodgin and Lorraine Firmstone, from Telford, have travelled to Shrewsbury every day to look for Daniel since he failed to return home from a night out in the town five weeks ago tomorrow.

"He's been gone too long," said Lorraine. "It's so hard not knowing where he is but we won't give up hope. We won't stop looking until we find him."

The couple are appealing to Shrewsbury residents not to forget Daniel and to keep checking their gardens and the area around where they live for any signs of him or his possessions.

They also asked people to think back to the early hours of Sunday, November 23 when Daniel, from Madeley, was last seen after a night out at the Buttermarket nightclub. He used his grey iPhone 6 to call his mother at 5.30am to say he did not know where he was and he was going to walk home.

CCTV footage shows Daniel passing the Dana prison at about 5am and half an hour later he can be seen on Dorset Street.

Dennis said: "We would like to appeal to people in the Dorset Street and Sydney Avenue area to check their gardens.

"We've watched CCTV from that morning and there were a few people walking by, some with dogs, some on bikes in the 20 minutes after Dan was last seen there. Someone must have seen him.

"A small car passed him outside the Dana prison at about 4.05am."

He added: "We just need someone to come forward and say something even if it's just the smallest bit of information.

"He was wearing a T-shirt in November and was on his phone a lot."

Daniel's parents have released new photographs of him and his 17-year-old sister Emily taken last Christmas when they were all together.

This year all festive and New Year celebrations have been put on hold to await Daniel's return.

Lorraine said: "I haven't done any Christmas shopping. I was going to go out and buy Dan things for when he gets back but I thought he wouldn't care about things like that he will just be happy to be home.

"I said to Emily we will have Christmas when Dan comes home. It's a family time and when someone is missing there is nothing to celebrate."

Each day that passes with no word from Daniel brings new pain for the couple.

"We won't give up hope," said Lorraine. "We've been down there at the same time in the morning that Dan was there. We've come to Shrewsbury every day ever since. We've done miles up the river just looking for him. We stand there and look and retrace his steps but it's hard because we don't know what he was thinking.

"He's been gone too long. It's so hard not knowing where he is but we won't give up hope. We won't stop looking until we find him."

Daniel's sister Emily has been expressing her heartache on social networking site twitter with sisterly posts like: "I actually miss Dan that much when he comes home he can bully me forever."

She also tweeted: "Can't have a Christmas without Dan and I won't so he better come home soon."

She posted a picture of her brother standing proudly at her side at her army passing out parade with the caption: "Need Dan home. If people could keep sharing to try get information and make people more aware would be really appreciated."

The new pictures released by Daniel's parents show him with more facial hair, which may give clue as to how he looks five weeks since his disappearance.

Lorraine said: "Dan is never clean shaven, he always has a bit of stubble, but five weeks on he will be looking much scruffier and will have a substantial amount of facial hair so we would like people to bear that in mind when they are looking out for him."

They also urged people to look for Daniel's grey iPhone 6 and a denim effect wallet by designer Police and a bunch of keys.