Family of missing Argyll botanist Jamie Taggart renew appeal

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The father of a botanist from Argyll who went missing in Vietnam a year ago has asked anyone with any information to come forward.

Jamie Taggart, from the Linn Botanic Gardens at Cove on the Rosneath peninsula, was on a plant hunting expedition near the border with China.

Dr Jim Taggart said it would take "very freak circumstances" for his son to be found alive.

But he said "someone, somewhere must know something" about what happened.

The 41-year-old retained fire fighter was travelling by himself, on hired motorbike taxis.

But he knew the area, having travelled there two years before he went missing.

'Hard to disappear'

His rucksack and passport were found at his guest house in the Vietnamese town of Sapa.

Dr Taggart said it was possible eye witnesses "should not have been there", or might not want to "get involved with local police".

He has called for anyone with family or friends in the area to pass on any information or rumours they may have heard.

"It is very hard to disappear absolutely, completely," he said.

But he said he had accepted it was most likely his son had slipped somewhere on a hillside and suffered fatal injuries.

People from Cove and Kilcreggan have raised thousands of pounds to fund searches for Mr Taggart.