THE brother of a pensioner who went missing more than four months ago has sadly admitted: "I just can't see how he could still be alive."

The disappearance of Jack Hawthornthwaite remains a mystery after he vanished in his slippers in sub-zero temperatures from Highfield Residential Home, in Sudell Road, Darwen, on March 13.

Searches by the town's detectives have also failed to locate the 70-year-old man, despite a number of unconfirmed sightings of him, including one in nearby Priory Drive, 15 hours after he went missing.

Jack left the home, which has now been cleared of all his belongings, in just a navy blue jacket, a white T-shirt, and navy tracksuit bottoms.

Today his brother Jim, 76, of Ashton Road, Darwen, said he was still clinging to the hope he may be found safe and well and made an emotional appeal in the hope it would jog someone's memory that would lead him to his brother.

But he admitted: "It's still a complete mystery where he has gone. I just can't see how he'd be alive now though.

"It was freezing outside on the night he left and he wasn't wearing warm clothes.

"Nobody has heard a thing since he went missing. I just can't understand it. Nobody has even seen him but the police are still investigating.

"I still think it was the foot and mouth disease that hampered the search in the first place. You couldn't go anywhere in case you spread it. I still keep going to the places where we went on trips together to the seaside and things, just in case he has made it there.

"We always used to go to the car boot sales together up and down the country and I miss that. I miss him quite a lot like all the family. He was a nice chap and liked to keep himself to himself. "He didn't even take any money with him and nobody would take anyone in without any money would they?

"He didn't even take his bank books. Maybe if he had we would have been able to trace him.

"Life is very different without him. I would normally go and see him on a Monday on my way to collect my pension but I can't do that any more.

" It seems really strange that he was there one minute and gone the next.

"He was always knocking about the town and everybody used to see him shopping and when he went out at night.

"I'm hoping this appeal my just wake someone up and trigger a memory that may lead us to where he is.

"It's agony not knowing. I just want to know one way or the other what has happened to him."