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| Lee, Katrice 11/28/1981; Dortmund Germany 2 YO | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 21 2006, 02:44 PM (1,904 Views) | |
| monkalup | Dec 21 2006, 02:44 PM Post #1 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArtic...ticleID=1901655 The 25-year torment over girl who disappeared NATASHA Lee released a single balloon into the sky today in memory of her little sister who went missing 25 years ago. Every year, she quietly pays tribute to Katrice Lee who vanished from a supermarket on November 28, 1981 – her second birthday. Today she would have been 27. Her family say they never give up hope that one day they will find her. Today, Natasha, 32, and her mother, Sharon, released a balloon with the message: 'Happy birthday Katrice, wherever you are. 'Love, your big sister.' It is Natasha's little way of making sure her sister is never forgotten. A computer-generated image of how Katrice may have looked in her 20s She said: 'I don't forget Katrice. She is the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing I think of at night. 'I should have a sibling with me. I should be buying Christmas and birthday presents for her. 'At times it's quite heart-breaking to deal with. 'But you have to get on and live your daily life, but it's never far from the forefront of my mind.' Katrice disappeared after a family trip to a superstore near their home near Dortmund, Germany, but despite international appeals, the youngster was never found. The family believe she may have been kidnapped and brought up by another family, not knowing her real past. Although Katrice's disappearance happened 25 years ago, the family's torment has never subsided. Natasha, now of Russell Street, Gosport, said: 'Sometimes it's extremely hard. I remember blaming myself – if I had been there what could have happened, or why they didn't take me? 'Without knowing if she's dead or alive, we have never had closure as a family. 'I don't think she is dead, but I realise she might be. There is just no way of knowing. 'I believe that Katrice was taken for another family, because they possibly couldn't have children. I think she might be living another life.' Natasha Lee with Katrice Natasha said that recent cases of children going missing had been hard for her and her family. 'Of course, just this year when Natascha Kampusch was found in Austria after being locked up for so many years, the parallels with what we think might have happened to Katrice made it especially difficult.' dan.kerins@... 28 November 2006 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Dec 21 2006, 02:46 PM Post #2 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightEuro...topic=1159&st=0 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Dec 21 2006, 02:50 PM Post #3 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Katrice Lee Major Missing since November 28, 1981 from Paderborn, Germany. Classification: Non Family Abduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: November 28, 1979 Age at Time of Disappearance: 2 years old Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark brown, curly hair. DNA: Available. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Circumstances of Disappearance Katrice Lee is originally from the UK, but lived on an army base in Germany with her parents. She vanished in 1981, on her second birthday, during a visit to the Naafi shop on an army base at Paderborn, near Hanover. There was an extensive search, but nothing turned up. Her parents believe she that was abducted and could have been brought up in Germany or Britain without knowing her true identity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Investigators If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: National Missing Persons Helpline (UK) 0500 700 700 from outside the UK +44 20 8392 4545 Source Information: National Missing Persons Helpline This is Hampshire 3/16/01 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Dec 28 2007, 02:17 PM Post #4 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside...84229-20284773/ Missing toddler's picture to be published on cups Dec 27 2007 by Simon Walton, Evening Gazette A PICTURE of a missing Teesside toddler is to be published on 200,000 coffee cups in a bid to end the 26-year mystery of her disappearance. From early next year, organic coffee chain Coffee@ will appeal for missing Hartlepool two-year-old Katrice Lee across 200,000 recycled paper cups. The cups also feature an age-progressed digital image of Katrice suggesting what she might look like today, aged 28. Katrice, who vanished in Germany in 1981, will also appear on the side of dustbin lorries in London, on transit vans around the UK and on the YouTube website. The move is part of a campaign by the charity Missing People, which earlier this month launched a new appeal called “do it for missing children”. The appeal aims to raise £1.4m and publicise missing children in new ways. Coffee@ will feature the Katrice appeal cups in the run-up to International Missing Children’s Day 2008 on May 25. Katrice vanished from a supermarket near Paderborn on her second birthday, November 28, after her dad Richard Lee, now a Hartlepool postman, mum Sharon and an aunt went shopping. Richard was a sergeant in the British Army at the time. The 58-year-old believes Katrice was snatched by someone who had been watching the family. Katrice’s sister, Natasha Lee, 33, who now lives in Gosport, Hampshire, said: “We hope that this new age progression may lead to someone providing information that will give us the answers that we desperately seek.” Chief executive of Missing People, Paul Tuohy said: “The charity is urging individuals and companies to help.” Anyone with any information should call the confidential 24-hour charity Missing People on Freefone 0500 700700. |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Dec 28 2007, 02:18 PM Post #5 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Without a trace Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/11/2007Page 1 of 3 Every year thousands of children are reported missing. While the great majority are found, some have remained lost for a decade or more. Nick Fielding talks to the families of those who never came home. Photograph by David Spero A British toddler goes missing abroad, leaving behind a distraught family. Except that this is not the story of Madeleine McCann, whose disappearance from a holiday villa in Portugal on May 3 has dominated the news schedules ever since. Lee Boxells’s mother, Chris: 'I suppose we could have moved, but I would dread the thought that he could come back here some day and find us gone' When Katrice Lee vanished in Germany in 1981 there was no blanket media coverage, no poster campaign, hardly even a mention on the national news. And today, 26 years later, her family still have no idea what happened to her. Her sister Natasha, now 33, is five years older than Katrice, who disappeared on her second birthday on November 28, 1981. 'How can I explain it?' she asks. 'Losing Katrice - it's like taking a deep breath and holding it for 26 years.' The two girls, along with their parents Ritchie and Sharon, were living in Paderborn in western Germany. Her father was a sergeant in the 15/19 King's Royal Hussars. It was Katrice's birthday and the family decided to go to the Naafi in nearby Schloss Neuhaus to buy things for her party. 'For some reason, I decided that I didn't want to go shopping,' Natasha says. 'My aunt and uncle had come over from Bielefeld [they were also in the Army] for the birthday and my aunt went with my parents while my uncle stayed at home with me. Dad drove them to the Naafi and waited for them in the car-park. It was the last payday before Christmas so the Naafi was packed. Katrice decided she didn't want to go in the trolley. Mum got to the checkout and went back to get some crisps.' And then Katrice disappeared. advertisement'I have terrible feelings because I didn't go with them. No matter how much I tell myself that it's not my fault, I still feel guilty. After Katrice disappeared, my parents decided not to have any more children. I've been single for seven years. I find it difficult to get close to people. I don't get angry very often, but I do get passionate about her. I have to detach myself so that I don't break down. I have had plenty of bad dreams about Katrice. The dream is always me walking through woods near where we lived in Germany. I see a toy pram and my sister's head in the pram.' Natasha still remembers many details from that day. Her father returning to the house to tell her uncle that Katrice was missing. 'Dad said, "We can't find Katrice". To me, it was like losing a toy. Mum was stood outside by the car. She was swearing, in a terrible state. I can still see her standing there. Mum can't remember any of it.' Every year about 140,000 children are reported missing in the UK. The majority are reunited with their families within 72 hours. A tiny number are still missing weeks, months, even years later, and in some cases with no evidence as to what happened to them. 'People - and kids in particular - don't go missing without reason,' says Paul Tuohy, the chief executive of Missing People, a charity that runs the Missing Persons Helpline and does more than any other organisation to help reunite missing people with their families. 'It's a by-product of social issues - debt, bullying, abuse, myriad reasons. It occurs as a result of something else.' There are no official records for the number of British children who are still missing after six months or a year, but Missing People has 300 open cases of children who were under 17 when they disappeared. Of these, 34 have been missing for more than a year. It is common sense to suppose that the longer a child has been missing, the less likely it is that they will return safely to their families. In the United States, 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and about 100 cases are thought to be premeditated abductions. Of these, it is estimated that over three-quarters are likely to be dead within three hours of disappearing. But that does not mean there is no reason for hope. Very occasionally, a child does turn up after a long period away. On June 5, 2002, Elizabeth Smart, aged 14, was abducted at knifepoint from her bedroom in a district of Salt Lake City, Utah. In the first days of her disappearance, thousands of volunteers combed the local area searching for clues. Elizabeth's parents, Ed and Lois, maintained a high media profile, even as the trail cooled and the days turned into weeks, then months. Astonishingly, after nine months and thanks to clues gleaned from her younger sister, who was in the bedroom at the moment of the kidnapping, Elizabeth was found alive, living with a polygamist preacher, Brian David Mitchell, who had once carried out work at the Smarts' home. 'I'm sure she's been through h**l,' Ed Smart said at the time, adding that it was 'absolutely wonderful' to have her back with their family. Elizabeth is now a university student. Mitchell remains in custody, but has been declared unfit to stand trial. Such high-profile cases - like that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl who was abducted on her way to school in Vienna in 1998, aged 10, and held in a cellar by her captor for eight years until her escape on August 23, 2006 - despite their positive outcomes, provide fuel for every parent's worst fears. We occasionally hear stories, often from friends of friends, of children snatched or almost snatched in shopping centres, or outside schools. In reality, such cases are mostly urban myths. But as any parent knows, the anxiety such stories feed, that there may be people out there who want to take our children, can be all too real. And perhaps the most horrific scenario is for a child to disappear without trace, perhaps for ever, with their families left to agonise over what might have happened. In cases where there is no resolution, Paul Tuohy believes that we seriously underestimate the impact that losing a member of the family can have. 'There's an odd irony for me,' he says, 'in that we spend around £30 million a year on victim support. If someone robs you or you are burgled, more than likely you will receive a letter and possibly a visit from someone who will help you get over the shock. But if your child or brother or father disappears, there is very little support. We are the people they call when they are at their lowest, sometimes many years later.' Tuohy has an ally in deputy assistant commissioner Robert Bryan at New Scotland Yard, who for the past five years has led the Association of Chief Police Officers on the question of missing people. Bryan has been instrumental in building strong links with the voluntary sector, recognising that it brings unique expertise to the issue. He says that the police have done a lot of work to understand precisely who disappears and why, noting that many children run away from care homes, for example, often because they are a long way from the child's home region, or because they have drug or other problems. advertisement 'Abductions are very rare,' Bryan says. 'Out of some 200 cases a year, almost all are parental abductions. Stranger abductions happen maybe once every couple of years. The real challenge for us is to pick out from the many thousands of children who go missing, the ones who really are at risk. One of the changes I have made is to focus on the families who are left behind and to realise that communities are also affected.' On September 10, 1988, 15-year-old Lee Boxell left his home in Sutton, Surrey, to watch Crystal Palace play at nearby Selhurst Park. He has not been seen or heard of since. 'Every year that day comes around, it's very hard,' Chris, his mother, says. 'Christmases, his 18th, his 21st, they've all been and gone, but how can you celebrate?' Chris and her husband Peter still live in the same neat, modern terrace house, a picture of Lee standing just to the right of the fireplace in the sitting room. 'I suppose we could have moved, but I would dread the thought that he could come back here some day and find us gone.' Chris gets out a number of scrapbooks that document the lengths they have gone to in order to find out what happened to Lee. They are full of newspaper and magazine cuttings - dozens of articles, details of television interviews and football club appeals. There are reports of rivers and ponds being dragged, empty properties being entered and examined. At first there were 25 detectives on the case and an incident room was set up in Sutton High Street, but with no information coming in, within a few months it was down to four detectives. 'I was keeping the campaign going,' Chris says. 'If not, I would have gone to pieces. Now I feel very guilty that my life was centred on looking for Lee because, to be honest, I forgot about my daughter, Lindsay. She really needed me and I haven't given her enough. If she had gone missing, of course I would have done the same. 'My husband used to spend all his spare time wandering the streets around here and in central London, looking for any information on Lee. There was never anything. I always ask the police what they think may have happened and I always get the same reply: they don't know. There's no evidence of life and no evidence of death.' There have been moments when their hopes have been raised. 'One day Peter was outside working on his car when a man came round asking for the Boxells. He said, "I think I know where your son is. He's in Greenford Market." Peter went there straight away. There was someone who did look exactly like Lee, but it wasn't him.' The family has offered a reward of £25,000 for information on Lee, but no one has come forward. 'We had beermats made, milk cartons, pop videos. The Body Shop printed his picture on the side of their delivery vehicles. It's been endless.' Upstairs, Lee's bedroom is the same as the day he left, 19 years ago. The calendar is set on the same day. His vinyl records, books, clothes, even his school uniform remain. Lee would now be 34. 'People say, why don't you clear it all away?' Chris says. 'I can't. Even his Old Spice aftershave is there! Not many kids use that these days. I have to hope that one day he will come back to us. For many years I wouldn't even go on holiday. 'I have been to see clairvoyants. I wanted someone to tell me that he's alive. I know it's all rubbish, but it helped me at the time. I know that with other kids who have gone missing, after a while their families agree to pronounce them dead. But I can't do that. When I know for certain, that's different.' advertisementDamien Nettles disappeared after a night out with friends in Cowes on the Isle of Wight on November 2, 1996, aged 15. His family now live in America - Damien's father is American - though his mother Valerie still returns regularly to the Isle of Wight to appeal for information. She is critical of the initial police handling of the case, pointing out that no significant search was organised until 14 months after he disappeared, but now, confident that there are people who know what happened to her son, she concentrates on keeping his memory alive and in the public domain. 'We are far from giving up on this,' Valerie says. 'My daughter Melissa [20], made a MySpace page for Damien about six months ago and had all of her contacts add his details, and so it snowballs. Yesterday, my other daughter, Sarah [30], made a Facebook page for him and we have already had more than 60 people sign up. I don't think we have come to terms with Damien's disappearance, though we have learnt to live with it. It has had a terrible effect on each of us. We cope by never giving up.' Sarah, now living in Seattle, shares her mother's anguish. 'It's been 11 guilt-ridden years. It has broken my heart. The week before Damien disappeared, while he was on his half-term break, he visited me at university in Portsmouth and I had called Mum to tell him to come home. I was a poor student and I just couldn't afford to look after him, to pay for his food and so on. Afterwards I felt that if I had let him stay longer with me in Portsmouth, everything would have been OK. Recently I have been getting more active, using these new kinds of community pages on the internet to spread the word. It might not seem much, but it gets people thinking. 'Initially, Damien's disappearance made us feel very distant as a family. There was a lot of resentment. We eventually realised we had to be as close as possible. If we hadn't all moved together to America, it would have split us apart.' In her heart of hearts, Sarah no longer truly believes that Damien is still alive. 'Something happened that night. I don't know what it was and I won't even speculate. You go through denial. At the beginning, our living-room looked over the front drive and every day I had a weird feeling of expecting to see him. I was so certain. But it never happened. For the first five or six years, I thought he might be somewhere. Now I look at it logically. He would never have run away, so I can't see any reason for him to be out there.' Instead, Sarah wants to make sure that people do not forget her brother. 'Damien was a real person, not just that boy who went missing 11 years ago. Something happened and someone has to know something.' The amount of media coverage devoted to the McCanns suggests there has been a change in the way the public perceive missing children. Despite Paul Tuohy's frustration at the lack of recognition given to the subject, he heads a vibrant organisation that now employs 50 people and runs a 24-hour helpline. Missing People has built strong links with the National Missing Persons Bureau - a relationship that has its genesis in the Fred West investigation when Gloucestershire police realised that what was then the Missing Persons Helpline had better records of disappearances than it did. 'Dealing with missing children costs the police in the region of £200 million a year in terms of manpower,' Tuohy says. 'We can save them millions in the long run. We now have protocols with all 43 police services in Britain and that is a very fruitful relationship. We can coordinate our work and we have been able to benefit from things like the introduction of age-progression photography that allows us to show how someone may look 10 or 20 years after they disappeared.' Natasha Lee and her family believe that the investigation into what happened to Katrice fell victim, in part, to 'politics'. The military police was effectively in charge, but had to negotiate with the German police because the Naafi building was in a German town. And the Army was not too keen to make much, in public, of the event. It was six weeks before an item appeared in the newspaper. 'There's still a lot of anger in our family,' Natasha says. 'No one has a good word to say about the military police and the German authorities. The Germans were convinced she had drowned in a nearby river and refused to believe anything else. 'A couple of months after she disappeared, Mum and Dad stopped receiving child support. When they did eventually appear on the forces TV network, there was an officer in the background telling them what they could and could not say.' The investigation did not get very far and despite dragging the local river and conducting house-to-house inquiries, no trace of Katrice was ever found. Ironically, it was only when Crimewatch mounted a reconstruction of Katrice's disappearance, on what would have been her 21st birthday in November 2000, that some idea of the weakness of the investigation was revealed. 'People came forward who had never been interviewed,' Natasha recalls. 'There was a young man who had been standing behind them at the checkout, and even one of the checkout ladies.' One woman also came forward to say that her boyfriend at the time, who was in the same regiment, had confessed to murdering the child. He lived up in Northumbria and the military police went to interview him. He denied it and the woman who gave the details died soon after, so nothing ever came of it. The military police told us they thought he was probably a fantasist.' None of the families I spoke to was entirely happy with the police's response. 'I have spent the better part of 10 years trying to make up the shortfall by getting as much publicity out there as possible in the hope that someone will come forward,' Valerie Nettles says. 'I think Hampshire constabulary would agree with this, although in other areas they feel they have done everything they can.' Robert Bryan is keen to stress that the police have vastly improved their response and strategy when a child is abducted. For instance, a senior police officer can now issue a Child Rescue Alert, which allows television and radio broadcasts to be interrupted, resulting in maximum publicity. Unfortunately, the official search for missing children cannot go on for ever if there are no leads to pursue. 'In any investigation, there may come a point where the case is no longer moving forward,' Bryan says, 'and yet the family still need support. That is where the voluntary sector comes in. That's where they have great strength.' Bryan says that when he took over responsibility for missing persons, it was seen as 'police business'. He now wants to move towards a national missing persons agency, involving the voluntary sector as much as possible. 'I would be happy for police officers to work at Missing People and other voluntary agencies. The initial response will always be to the police, but if things get more long-term and complex, it makes sense to have a national agency. I don't think it matters how you label it, but this is the way we have to go.' With the publicity generated by the McCann case, the issue of missing children has never been so much in the public eye. It might well be that one of the most important lessons to be learnt from Madeleine's disappearance is that providing practical support for the family of a missing child, especially as time goes on, is paramount, even if there can never be what therapists would call 'closure'. At what point, one is left wondering, does the parent of a missing child attempt to get on with their life, even if that life can never be the same again? Some, like Lee Boxell's father, Peter, prefer to stay out of the spotlight and wish for some semblance of normality. ('He feels we have done enough,' Chris Boxell says.) For many others, the best - the only - way to cope is to keep the flame alive, to never stop looking or asking questions. Today, despite all the setbacks and disappointments, Natasha Lee is more active than ever before, campaigning to draw attention to her sister's disappearance and offering support and solidarity to other families in a similar position. Every year she celebrates Katrice's birthday by releasing a balloon from a beach near Gosport, where she now lives. 'I write on it, "To Katrice, Happy Birthday wherever you are, from your big sis, Tash". I add the date and place she disappeared. I asked Mum and Dad if they'd mind if I was more involved and they agreed for me to do as much as I can. That's what keeps me going.' For more information, contact Missing People (0500-700700; missingpeople.org.uk) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main....dren.xml&page=1 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| wv171 | Jan 3 2008, 09:33 PM Post #6 |
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Family of abducted toddler hope adult image brings breakthrough 26 years on Charity creates new picture of girl parents believe was taken to order in Germany Steven Morris Friday January 4, 2008 The Guardian For 26 years the family of Katrice Lee have lived with the image of her as a curly-haired toddler, just as she looked before she was snatched from them during a shopping trip. Today, after years of loss and uncertainty, they are hoping that a new image released by the charity Missing People showing how Katrice might look now as a 28-year-old woman will provide a breakthrough in their search. Katrice disappeared on her second birthday from a supermarket in Germany, where her father was serving as a soldier. Her mother turned away for a few moments to fetch a pack of crisps for the girl's party and when she looked back Katrice was gone. Article continues -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lee family are convinced she was kidnapped to order for a family unable to have a child of their own. The Lees firmly believe that she is still alive but unaware of who her real parents are and who she really is. When they look at the new image Katrice's parents, Ritchie and Sharon, see a young woman they would simply like to kiss and hug and start to get to know 26 years after she vanished. Her older sister, Natasha Lee, sees the image and she imagines the times they would have shared - the shopping trips, the family parties, even the arguments. After a year in which the torment of Madeleine McCann's family has dominated the British media, the trials of the Lees - and the hope the new image has given them - seem particularly acute. "It's very weird," said Natasha, a 33-year-old civil servant from Hampshire. "In the picture she looks very much like my mum. I still think of her as a curly-haired girl of two years." Ritchie Lee said: "She was very much a mother lookalike. Looking at the image makes me think that I'd like to see her in the flesh. I'd like to hold her." Sharon added: "It's an eerie feeling. When I think of Katrice I think of a two-year-old girl. She could be anything now, she could have short hair, she could be a punk rocker." Natasha, who leads the campaign to get her sister back, has broken but vivid memories of the day Katrice went missing - November 28 1981. "My mum was busy rushing round," she said. "I remember asking her what she was doing. She was going to the Naafi [the forces' store] to get stuff for Katrice's party. I said to my mum I didn't want to go so I stayed with my Uncle Cliff and mum went with my dad, Katrice and my Aunty Wendy." Floods of tears The Naafi in Schloss Neuhaus, near Paderborn, was busy because it was the troops' payday. Ritchie, then a regimental quartermaster sergeant, waited in the car while his wife, her sister and Katrice went into the Naafi. "After 20 to 25 minutes I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right," he said. "I got out of the car but shook it off. I sat there for another 10 minutes and then thought that shopping couldn't have taken that long." He went into the shop and found his wife in floods of tears. Natasha remembers her father coming home and telling her: "We can't find Katrice." "I didn't really understand what that meant. I associated losing something with losing a toy - you found it after a bit," she said. Years of torment Natasha, who remembers her mother "screaming and screaming", continued: "It was really horrible. Mums don't cry, kids cry. I also remember running round a car park looking for Katrice. I told my dad: 'She's not there,' and he replied: 'She's not going to be there, Tash.'" The years of torment began. Natasha had a recurring dream in which she saw a pram in the wood near where the family lived. "I pull the hood up and just my sister's head is lying there," she said. From the start the Lees were sure Katrice was taken to order. "My mum thinks they were being watched or followed," said Natasha. Ritchie added: "I was very sure from the start that she was taken for another family - call it a parent's intuition." There have been occasional leads. Seven years ago the case was re-investigated and one witness reported seeing a man at the time of the disappearance with "yellow hair" carrying a girl from the supermarket. A woman also came forward to say that a man had confessed to abducting a girl from a supermarket in Germany and killing her after sexually assaulting her. Nothing came of it. The case sometimes briefly attracts attention when another child goes missing. The Lees are struck by the similarities between Katrice's disappearance and the mystery of what happened to Madeleine McCann. Memories "It's hard for us when another child goes missing," said Natasha. "It brings back the memories. On the other hand, it's terrible to say and we feel awful about it but it also means that people remember Katrice's case." She wishes she could remember more about her: "She was my world. I could never wait to get off the school bus to see her and she would always be waiting for me. I remember her red wellies. I just loved her. I wish I could remember more. I wish I had taken more in." As always, Natasha released balloons to mark her sister's birthday carrying the slogan: "Come home Katrice, we will never stop looking for you." "We have a gut feeling that Katrice is still alive and we will see her again," said Natasha. "Until we have proof that is not the truth, we will always believe it." · Anyone with information regarding Katrice can call the confidential 24-hour charity Missing People on Freefone 0500 700 700, or email seensomeone@missingpeople.org.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2235291,00.html |
| "Hey Beavis, we need a chick that doesn't suck. No, wait a minute, that's not what I mean." -Butthead | |
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| monkalup | Nov 30 2009, 05:25 PM Post #7 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/people/Family-...mark.5866318.jp Natasha Lee appeals for help finding her missing sister Natasha Lee will release a balloon to celebrate her missing sister's birthday «Published Date: 28 November 2009 By Sarah Foster Natasha Lee longed to find her missing sister in time to throw her a surprise 30th birthday party. But she's had to celebrate little sister Katrice's big day without her by releasing a single balloon into the sky instead. The poignant gesture symbolises the start of yet another year without Katrice who vanished exactly 28 years ago today. Natasha has vowed she will never stop searching for the sister she firmly believes is still alive. 'I've missed out on all the milestones in Katrice's life but we'll never stop looking for her,' she said. 'What I wanted most was to bring her home for her 30th birthday and that hasn't happened. But there's always next year.' Curly-haired Katrice disappeared during a trip to the supermarket on her second birthday. The girls' father, Richard, was an army sergeant stationed in Germany when mum Sharon took Katrice to the Naafi in Schloss Neuhaus, near Paderborn, to buy supplies for her party. But when the toddler followed her mum down an aisle she disappeared out of sight - never to be seen by her family again. Over the years Natasha, 35, has tried to raise as much awareness about her sister's case as possible. The Lees believe Katrice might have been abducted by a childless couple and brought up as their own. The charity Missing People produced an age-progressed image of what Katrice might look like and Natasha has set up a Facebook page to appeal to internet users all over the world. But despite her best efforts there have been no significant breakthroughs. Not knowing what happened has been agonising for Natasha and her parents. Yet they refuse to give up hope and say cases like those of American Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was found alive 18 years after she was abducted, give them strength. Natasha, of Russell Street, Gosport, added: 'People have always asked us why we haven't given up and it's because of cases like that. Katrice has been missing for 28 years but there's always hope. We believe that she's alive. We've got no proof that she's dead. We're not stupid. We know Katrice could have been abducted and murdered but we 100 per cent believe that she's alive.' Page 1 of 1 Last Updated: 27 November 2009 9:10 PM Source: The News Location: Portsmouth Katrice's sister Natasha |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 30 2009, 05:27 PM Post #8 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases.yuku.c...rn-Germany.html |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 30 2009, 05:32 PM Post #9 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1081477.stm an older article Friday, 22 December, 2000, 10:20 GMT Technology helps search for toddler Katrice Lee aged 2 and how she might look today by BBC News Online's Peter Gould Computer technology is being used in an effort to trace a British child who disappeared in Germany 19 years ago. A technique used by the National Missing Persons Helpline (NMPH) to "age" pictures of missing children, is now offering renewed hope to the parents of Katrice Lee. The little girl vanished in 1981, on her second birthday, during a visit to the Naafi shop on an army base at Paderborn, near Hanover. Her parents, Richard and Sharon, still cling to the belief that she may be alive. The computer-modified picture, showing Katrice as she might look today as a 21-year-old, is being used as part of a new appeal. Katrice Lee: vanished from army base "As a family, all we want is an answer," says Mrs Lee. "We believe she may have been abducted and brought up by another family as their own. When she sees this picture she may realise it is her." Every year a quarter of a million people in Britain are reported missing. The majority turn up safe and well within a few hours, at the most they are gone no more than two or three days. But thousands do not, and the distress and anguish of their families can last much longer. For them NMPH may offer the best hope of a happy reunion. Surprisingly, given the numbers of people reported missing, there is no central agency responsible for gathering information that can be used to help trace those who have inexplicably disappeared. Why people go missing •Abuse •Debt •Domestic dispute •Illness/Depression Source: NMPH The police do not look for people unless the missing person is regarded as vulnerable - or it is thought a crime has been committed. The Salvation Army operates a family tracing service which concentrates on blood relatives, and helps to re-unite thousands of people every year. But that still leaves many more people who have vanished, leaving behind worried friends and families. NMPH has its own web site and operates two free telephone lines. One is a "message home" service that allows people who have run away to reassure their families they are alive and well - even if they do not want to be found. The charity works with the police, a partnership established during the "House of Horror" murder investigation in Gloucester. The disappearance of young women, murdered at the Cromwell Street home of Fred and Rosemary West, demonstrated the need for a more comprehensive register of missing people. Adults who go missing •Peak age for men who disappear is 28-29 •Peak age for women who disappear is 26-27 •Most go missing in October •Most turn up in March Source: NMPH By searching its database, NMPH helped to identify several of the murder victims. But it also provided happier news, reuniting 120 families who feared that a missing female relative had been among those killed. Since then, a number of police forces have been working more closely with the charity, which now receives around one hundred thousand phone calls a year. In addition to its extensive database, NMPH employs an artist who can turn a post mortem photograph into a likeness of the person as they appeared in life. And in the case of skeletal remains, clay is used to create a 3D model of the person's face. The search for a missing person often crosses national boundaries. By featuring the following cases on the Internet, the charity hopes that some families may receive good news this Christmas. The following are just three of the missing persons being sought by friends and relatives SIMON PARKES Simon, who is 32, was last seen in the Horseshoe Bar in Gibraltar on 12 December 1986. He had been serving in the Royal Navy, and was looking forward to returning home to Bristol. His family say they are desperately worried because his disappearance is so out of character. He is 5 ft 8in tall with mid-brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a tattoo of a horse's head on his right arm with the word "Simon" across it. He has a pale complexion and a mole on his chin. ODETTE BREANT Odette disappeared from her home in Paris in September 1995 and arrived in England on a ferry docking at Newhaven. There have been unconfirmed sightings of her in a number of areas, including Brighton and Worthing. Her family believe she is depressed and confused, and are seriously concerned about her. She is 5ft 4in tall, medium to heavy build, and wears gold-framed reading glasses. She has light brown, collar-length hair and brown eyes. IAN LAWSON MOGFORD Ian is 24, and a student of Bristol University. He was reported missing in September 1996 while travelling in India. He had set off alone to travel to the Kulu Valley area, and intended to go mountain trekking. But it is thought bad weather forced him to abandon the trek, and he may have travelled on to Ladakh. He is 5ft 10 in tall, of medium build, with light brown hair. Anyone who thinks they may have seen one of these people is asked to call the National Missing Persons Helpline, on Freefone 0500 700 700.
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Feb 7 2012, 09:54 PM Post #10 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Katrice Lee mother on 30 years on since disappearance Advertisement Sharon Lees travelled to Germany, to where her daughter went missing 30 years ago Continue reading the main story Related Stories * Father offers support to McCanns Katrice Lee went missing in Germany on 28 November 1981, on her second birthday. She was last seen in a shop near her home on a British Military base in Schloss Neuhaus, Paderborn. But her father, Sgt Maj Richard Lees, from Hartlepool, and his wife Sharon Lees have never given up hope that their daughter is still alive. To mark 30 years since her disappearance, Mrs Lees travelled to the place where her daughter went missing - the NAAFI shopping complex in Germany - as police agreed to her calls for the case to be reinvestigated. Katrice Lee Katrice went missing on her second birthday from a shopping complex "This is the place that 30 years ago we stopped living life as a normal family and our nightmare began," Mrs Lees said from the site. "On that morning, Wendy, my sister, and I got out the car with Katrice, it was chock-a-block, it was the soldiers' last main pay day before Christmas so everyone was in there getting Christmas goods. "It was Katrice's birthday, we got to the checkouts, and I remembered I didn't have crisps for Katrice's birthday party. I left her with my sister, walked up the aisle, and got the crisps. When I got back to the checkout, she wasn't there. 'Panic set in' "My sister said she'd ran after me. I went back up the aisle, then around the NAAFI shouting her. "There was no sign of her. By this time panic had started to set in." Mrs Lees said: "One of us went outside to get Richard, my husband, I can't remember which one of us it was. I couldn't understand why we couldn't see her or hear her. "That was the last time I ever held my daughter in my arms, the last time I ever saw her. "She's never been seen to this day. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote I don't believe my daughter's life ended here. Not at all.” End Quote Sharon Lees Mother "I can't explain how you feel as a parent when you can't find your child. For a couple of seconds it's OK, you think you'll hear them shout 'Mummy' or something. But when you don't it's the most awful feeling in the world. "My life is in two periods - my life up until that day, and my life afterwards." 'Huge efforts' The family had to deal with both the German authorities and the Military Police over the disappearance, and said they felt that they were "ping-ponged" between both. Maj Clive Robins, from the MoD, said that "huge efforts" were made to find Katrice at the time, including large-scale searches and appeals for information in the German and UK media. Maj Robins is leading the team of investigators established 30 year on to reinvestigate what happened. He said: "It is likely that the jurisdictional position may have been a complicating factor - Katrice was, after all, a British child who went missing in Germany. "However, all the evidence I've seen so far suggests that the German authorities provided every possible assistance at the time. Age-progressed image of Katrice. Created by the charity Missing People A special image has been produced of how Katrice may look now "It is my hope that by applying modern investigative techniques we may be able to identify new lines of inquiry that may shed some light on Katrice's disappearance." The German police told the Lees family their daughter must have drown in a nearby river. That would have involved the toddler walking out of the shop, past the shoppers, down a ramp, across a busy car park, through a hedge, and along to the river. Mrs Lees said the theory was "ridiculous". "How can a child vanish off the face of the earth?" she said. "How could she make that journey and throw herself in the river... and no-one saw her? "It doesn't add up. I don't believe my daughter's life ended here. Not at all." The case, which was never closed, is now being reinvestigated by the Military Police, with fresh images supplied by the charity Missing People, which shows how Katrice could look now, aged 32. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-16928490 ![]() Uploaded with ImageShack.us |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Feb 7 2012, 09:56 PM Post #11 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/6736233.stm Father offers support to McCanns Katrice Lee Katrice vanished after running out of sight for a moment A Hartlepool man whose young daughter vanished almost 26 years ago has offered his support to the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann. Richard Lee's daughter Katrice disappeared from a supermarket in Germany on her second birthday in 1981. He said he has "walked down a very dark tunnel" ever since, and believes he can offer the McCanns some comfort. On Friday, Madeleine's parents launched an appeal in Amsterdam, 35 days after she went missing from the Algarve. Katrice's father was posted to Germany while serving in the Army, and was shopping with his wife and daughter when she vanished. 'Open wound' They had taken her to the Naafi shop on an Army base at Paderborn, near Hanover, to buy food for her birthday party. She ran out of sight for a moment and was never seen again. Mr Lee said: "It's an open wound. Every time a child goes missing I feel as if someone's throwing a little bit of salt into that wound, but more so with the McCanns because it reminds me so much of Katrice. "All I can say is that for 26 years I've been walking down a very dark tunnel and I hope their walk isn't as long as mine has been." Gerry and Kate McCann held a press conference in Amsterdam on the final leg of a two-day trip in Europe raising awareness of Madeleine's disappearance. They are expected to fly back to the Algarve in time for a jazz concert in their daughter's name in Lagos. It is thought Madeleine was snatched from the family's apartment at the resort on 3 May while her parents were at a nearby restaurant. |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | May 20 2012, 10:04 AM Post #12 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-21...o=feeds-newsxml 'Look me in the eye, Mr Cameron': Angry father's plea for answers after PM ends investigation into girl, 2, who went missing 30 years agoKatrice Lee went missing from a British Army base in Germany in 1981 Father Richard Lee urges Prime Minister to meet him to explain why case will not be reopened By Rob Preece PUBLISHED: 06:54 EST, 20 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:22 EST, 20 May 2012 Comments (0) Share Mystery: Katrice Lee was only two when she went missing from a British Army base in Germany in 1981 The family of a little girl who disappeared more than 30 years ago have spoken of their devastation after David Cameron ruled out any further investigation of the mystery. Katrice Lee was only two when she went missing from a British Army base in Germany in 1981. Her parents believe military police made mistakes in the early stages of their investigation into her disappearance - but the Prime Minister has resisted calls to reopen the inquiry. Katrice's father, Richard Lee, 62, today appealed to Mr Cameron to meet the family to explain why the case will not be taken forward. Mr Lee, who lives in Hartlepool, County Durham, said: 'I want to meet up with the Prime Minister and I want him to look me in the eye and tell me why he isn't looking into the case any further. 'He said he was going to and then he met up with the military police, but why hasn't he asked to meet up with us and get our side?' Mr Cameron promised to look into the case last month when Tory MP Caroline Dinenage raised it during Prime Minister's Questions. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-21...l#ixzz1vQGBOWIs |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | May 25 2012, 06:48 PM Post #13 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...ldrens-Day.html A child disappears in UK every three minutes...help us find them Sun campaign in support of International Missing Children's Day Gone ... six-year-old Aamina Khan, left, was last seen by her father on August 20, 2011. She has been missing from her home in Croydon, south London, ever since. She was taken by her mother and is thought to be abroad. Lee Boxell, right, went missing after watching a football match on September 10, 1988. He said goodbye to a friend in Sutton High Street, Surrey. No one has seen him since. He was 13 at the timeBy LADY CATHERINE MEYER, Founder of PACT – Parents And Abducted Children Together Published: 24th May 2012 TOMORROW is International Missing Children’s Day. 25 comments Related StoriesDad’s agony over missing kid ONE dad shares his agony over daughter on Missing Children’s Day The Sun SaysDad launches app to help find missing childrenVatican sex party claimsMaddie hols promo is ‘vile’30 kids lost since Maddie In other countries it is as important as Mother or Father’s Day – and The Sun believes it should be here too. In the UK it is estimated more than 140,000 children go missing every year. That is one every three minutes. The sad case of Madeleine McCann – snatched from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007 – has highlighted the plight of missing children. Tomorrow a new free helpline and website – 116 000 and missingkids.co.uk – will be launched. Last night Maddie’s mum Kate McCann was among those attending a Downing Street reception to mark the launch. Also present was Lady Catherine Meyer, founder of Parents And Abducted Children Together (PACT), whose two sons were abducted by their dad in 1994. She did not see them again until 2003. Here, as part of a Sun campaign, she explains why readers should back International Missing Children’s Day – while ANTONELLA LAZZERI reveals details of some of those children currently missing. EVERY three minutes a child disappears in the UK. This is a horrifying statistic and everyone in this country should be up in arms about it. But they’re not. In fact most people in Britain have no idea how huge the problem of missing children is. In Europe and America people are much more aware of it. International Missing Children’s Day is tomorrow — how many people in Britain actually know it exists? I think for years in Britain we have seen missing children as being a problem linked to teenage runaways. But the truth is that every child is at risk of becoming one of those statistics. This staggering “one child every three minutes” statistic was calculated by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) using recently collated figures. It includes teenage runaways, parental abductions, unexplained disappearances and kidnaps. Paige Chivers ... missing from Blackpool, Lancs, since August 26, 2007. She was 15 I know only too well the terrible trauma the experienced by the parent of a child who disappears. The pain, the anguish, the longing to hold your child, to feel their arms around you again. Day after day, hour after hour, you suffer. When my boys were missing I felt so much pain I thought I would die. Osman Ali ... went missing from East Ham, east London, on June 2, 2009. He was 16It was like a never-ending grief, a never-ending nightmare. I used to imagine them crying for me. Christmas ceased to exist. Their birthdays were terrible days to endure, not ones of happiness. I had gone from being the proud mother of two wonderful sons to having no one. Eva Jarkova, 13 ... missing from Woolwich, south east London, since March 3, 2012As the years passed, the pain never diminished. In fact it got worse, knowing they were growing up without me in their lives. The isolation was incredible. I was a mother who no longer had her children. You feel you have nowhere to turn. You don’t know where to go for help. I know two parents who were in my position who ended up committing suicide because they felt so hopeless. The police are wonderful, but after the initial contact, what can they really do for you? Katrice Lee ... vanished from British Army base in Schloss Neuhaus, Germany, in 1981. She was 2This was the reason I formed PACT. I first set it up to offer support for people experiencing what I was going through. But over the last decade PACT has also been campaigning for a better response to the problem of missing children. We wanted to see a national centre for missing children like there is in America. Emmanuel Diaz ... aged 1, above, and Felipe, 2, taken from Brixton, S London, on Aug 19, 2011In the past, each individual police force dealt with their cases and it was up to officers to find the time to put the information about the child up on a local website. Now, through CEOP, it will all be co-ordinated and information about the child will be kept up to date. There will even be age progression pictures. In the US there is much more public awareness of the problem. David Spencer, 13 ... went missing with a pal in Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, on Boxing Day, '96There are posters of missing children everywhere, TV alerts, web alerts, stories in the media. Everyone must remember the famous American milk carton campaigns, where pictures of missing children were featured on them. I know from experience that these simple things can lead to children being found. Ruth Wilson, 16 ... vanished after taking a cab to a pub in Boxhill, Surrey, on November 27, 1995There was a case of a father who abducted his two children in Britain. He took the Eurostar to France and the first thing to confront him in the arrivals hall was a poster with a picture of him. He turned straight round and took the children back home to their mother. Getting a child’s picture and information out about them is vital. Kevin Hicks ... said he was off to the shops in Croydon, south London, in April 1986. He'd be 42I have met Kate and Gerry McCann several times and I know they believe that. I think they feel lucky in some ways that there has been so much publicity about Madeleine. They know only too well that other parents haven’t had that. Jordan Ratcliffe ... missing since August 13, 2008. He was 16 and last seen in the north westParents have told me how they might have had initial publicity and then it went away. They are left feeling terrible, because to them it’s like their child doesn’t matter to anyone any more. The McCanns have always supported International Missing Children’s Day. Madeleine McCann ... snatched on a family holiday in Portugal in May 2007. She’d be nine todayPACT has arranged, thanks to the advertising company Clear Channel, to have posters publicising the website on bus shelters and billboards throughout the UK. There will be 300 black cabs in London carrying appeals for missing children and another 50 carrying the missingkids.co.uk logo. Supermarkets will also be putting up posters of missing kids in their store. We want people to become aware of the website and to use it. Robert Williams ... missing from Neath, West Glamorgan, since March 28, 2002. He'd now be 25There is research that shows that kids are very good at recognising other children. There was a case where a child saw a missing poster and told his mother: “That boy is in my class.” It turned out that child was right. In Britain we have a huge problem — people need to realise that. Mark Garvey ... went missing on March 27, 1987, after visiting his girlfriend in Bootle, Merseyside. He would now be 40It’s not just teenage runaways. At the moment PACT is doing research for CEOP about how many children are abducted each year. It is ludicrous that we still do not know exactly how many and under what circumstances children are abducted each year in the UK. I estimate it is around 500 a year. But that might not even be the real figure — some parental abductions are not even reported. Elizabeth Ogungbayibi ... was five on September 29, 2006. It is thought she was taken by her father in ManchesterPeter Davies, chief executive of CEOP, insists missingkids.co.uk will also offer sources of support to children who are contemplating running away from home. He said: “The recent court case of the Asian sex grooming gang showed what can happen to vulnerable runaway youngsters. “The new website is very ‘child-friendly’ and it will be linked to Twitter and Facebook. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Helpline: 116 000 Visit: missingkids.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “We hope it will not only help to find missing children but also reduce the risk of kids running away. We would like everyone in Britain to become aware of this website and to take a look at it. Martin Houghton-Brown, chief executive of the Missing People charity, added: “Disappearances such as Madeleine McCann’s demonstrated the need for co-ordination across the world when a child goes missing. “The 116 000 helpline is introduced so that people can call when someone disappears, regardless of which EU country they are in.” Please also visit missingpeople.org.uk and pact-online.org. |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:22 PM Post #14 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Claims of cover up made by Hartlepool MP over toddler's disappearance 7:00pm Thursday 8th November 2012 in Hartlepool News By Robert Merrick, Parliamentary Correspondent MILITARY police carried out a "cover-up" after a botched investigation into the tragic disappearance of a toddler, a North-East MP alleged tonight (November 8). Iain Wright, the Hartlepool MP, made the claim more than 31 years after Katrice Lee went missing from a German supermarket, on her second birthday. Leading a Commons debate, the Labour MP demanded an independent investigation into the way the Royal Military Police (RMP) mishandled the case - which is now the subject of a fresh RMP probe. And he told MPs: "I am concerned that embarrassments in the way in which the case was initially dealt with, and then subsequently handled over many years, led to a cover up of the facts. "A reinvestigation by the Royal Military Police - into a case handled by the Royal Military Police - does not fill me with confidence that all possible criticisms and flaws will be brought to light. Only an independent and impartial review will do that." But, in reply Mark Francois, a defence minister, said a civilian police force would only be allowed to review the RMP investigation "at an appropriate point". Speaking afterwards, a furious Richard Lee - Katrice's father, a former soldier from Belle Vue, in Hartlepool, who has devoted his life to finding her - condemned the MoD, saying: "I'm totally disgusted. Ads by Google Man Cheats Credit Score 1 simple trick & my credit score jumped 217 pts. Banks hate this! www.thecreditsolutionprogram.com Long Term Care Plans 6 Ins Quotes From Top Providers. Free eGuide & Consultation. Act Now www.ltcfp.com/long-term-care-quotes "There is still no admission of the faults in the case and, after it took me 31 years to get to a debate in parliament, they've cast me back to the people who covered it up." Meanwhile, Caroline Dinenage, a Conservative MP in Hampshire - where Katrice's mother, Sharon, lives - criticised David Cameron for a letter which said he was "too busy" to meet her. She said: "It is surely not right to cherry-pick which desperate, grief-stricken family of a lost child is more worthy than others of face-time with the prime minister?" Katrice was born on an Army base near the German town of Paderborn, Dortmund, where Mr Lee was posted as a sergeant in the 15/16th King's Royal Hussars. On the morning of Katrice's second birthday - on November 28, 1981 - she went with her parents and aunt Wendy on a shopping trip to the local Naafi store to pick up food for a birthday tea. Mr Lee waited outside but, as the sisters went to the checkout, Katrice vanished. The military police concluded she had drowned in a nearby river, but the family describe this as "simply implausible" - and a body was never recovered. Last night, Mr Francois pledged to arrange a meeting with himself, Brigadier Warren, and his investigative team, at the RMP's headquarters in Wiltshire. And he said, of the investigation: "They are doing everything practically possible, given the time that has elapsed, to get to the bottom of what happened to Katrice." http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/loca..._disappearance/ |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:25 PM Post #15 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local...amily-1-5108868 Friday 9 November 2012 Minister’s pledge to Katrice’s family Published on Thursday 8 November 2012 18:47 A GOVERNMENT minister has vowed to do “everything possible” to relieve the “unbearable burden” the family of missing Katrice Lee have suffered for the last three decades. Defence Minister Mark Francois was responding to tough questions on the handling of the case on behalf of Katrice’s dad Richard Lee. Katrice went missing from a British Army base in Paderborn, Germany, on her second birthday in 1981. For the last 31 years, her family have been left with unanswered questions after seeing a series of investigations come to nothing. The investigation is now back in the spotlight after the intervention of Hartlepool MP Iain Wright, and Caroline Dineage, the MP for Gosport where Katrice’s mum Sharon and sister Natasha are now based. Mr Francois assured the family the investigation was very much “alive” and that “every effort” was being made to find out the “truth about what happend to Katrice”. However, Mr Francois added because the investigation was still active, it would be inappropriate at this stage to to release any case files as it could prejudice the inquiry. Despite the minister’s pledge, Mr Lee was far from happy with what he heard in Parliament. He said: “They want to meet on their terms and their rules. I’m absolutely gutted, but I’m not going away. “They still haven’t made a public admission that they cocked up. I’m infuriated and disgusted with what I heard.” FULL story in tomorrow’s Mail |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:27 PM Post #16 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20257397 8 November 2012 Last updated at 16:10 ET Missing Gosport toddler Katrice Lee search 'botched' Katrice Lee was two when she went missing Demands for missing toddler files 'Where our 30-year nightmare began' Missing... from afar The investigation into the disappearance of a Hampshire toddler was "botched" from the start, an MP has claimed in Parliament. Katrice Lee vanished 31 years ago from a shop at a German military base where her Teesside father was stationed. MPs have held a debate in the House of Commons about how the authorities handled the investigation. Hartlepool Labour MP Iain Wright said the family had waited "far too long" and "action must be taken". And Conservative MP for Gosport Caroline Dinenage criticised David Cameron for refusing to meet with the family. Abduction theory Katrice's mother Sharon Lee and sister Natasha, from Gosport, and her father Richard Lee, from Hartlepool, believe Katrice is still alive and she was abducted. Defence Minister Mark Francois said he would try to meet them before Christmas. He said: "We do not have a time machine and we cannot go back to that day in 1981 when Katrice disappeared. "But what the Royal Military Police are doing is rigorously applying all available modern investigative techniques and seeking the advice of leading international colleagues. "In other words they are doing everything practically possible to get to the bottom of what happened to Katrice." Katrice disappeared on her second birthday while her family were out shopping for party food. Her mother left her at the checkout with her aunt for just a moment as she went to get crisps but when she returned Katrice had gone. |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:29 PM Post #17 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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8 February 2012 Last updated at 05:53 ET Share this pageEmailPrint 29 ShareFacebookTwitter Katrice Lee's family demands missing child's case files Katrice Lee was believed drowned although her body was never found The family of a Teesside toddler who disappeared in Germany 30 years ago are demanding to see case files held by the Royal Military Police (RMP). Katrice Lee vanished on her second birthday from a shop at the military base at Paderborn, where her father was stationed. Her father, Richard Lee, criticised the investigation and said the RMP were "as good as the Keystone Cops". The RMP is refusing to release the files but is re-examining the case. Katrice went missing in a NAAFI shop while out with her mother Sharon, who does not believe the original theory about what happened is possible. She said: "The German police said that she'd wandered out of a busy NAAFI that morning, past a load of shoppers, down the ramp, past the ticket seller, across this car park, through that hedge... walk to the river's edge, throw herself in - and not a soul saw her do it. "It's just ludicrous. It's absolutely ridiculous. "What upsets me even more was the Military Police pursued that theory above all others." 'Plagued by incompetence' Mrs Lee's MP, Caroline Dinenage, has asked the defence minister, Andrew Robathan, to help the family see the documents. She added: "Unlike the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Katrice's case has received little attention and even less support. "The investigation was seemingly plagued by incompetence, while the family were treated with a shocking lack of sympathy and sensitivity by those handling the case." Mr Lee, now living back in Hartlepool, believes the RMP did not follow all possible leads. He said that, when he pointed out his daughter had a squint that would require surgery, and that hospitals and doctors should be warned to look out for Katrice, he was ignored. He said: "I think that not only has Katrice been failed, we've been failed as a family. On many occasions we got a pat on the head and were more or less told to go away." Both Mr and Mrs Lee believe their daughter is still alive and that she was abducted. They are now demanding to know why the RMP will not release the case files. A Ministry Of Defence spokesman said: "The RMP does not routinely disclose information in relation to ongoing investigations. Should a new line of inquiry develop, disclosure of the case files could have a prejudicial effect on the investigation and potentially prejudice the right to a fair trial. "The RMP is also obliged to protect personal data and information given to the RMP in confidence." Mr Lee said: "It's like being in a time warp. If your child goes missing in a supermarket your heart is in your mouth. Well, our hearts have been in our mouths for 30 years." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-16929835 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:32 PM Post #18 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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2:09PM, THU 8 NOV 2012 Missing Katrice case debated in parliament - last updated Thu 8 Nov 2012 UK Find Katrice Teesside Katrice Lee was two-years-old when she went missing in Germany Photo: Lee family A debate will be held in The House of Commons later into whether the case of a missing toddler has been handled properly. Katrice Lee disappeared thirty one years ago from a military base in Germany where her father was stationed - he now lives on Teesside. Katrice's family believe that they have not received enough support from the military police or the German government during their search for their daughter. Katrice Lee was two years old when she went missing at a NAAFI supermarket in Germany. What they believe Katrice would look like today |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:33 PM Post #19 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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By Elise Brewerton Published on Thursday 8 November 2012 07:56 MPs will today debate the disappearance of a Gosport toddler 31 years ago in Germany. Katrice Lee went missing from the army base where her father was stationed and her family believe mistakes were made in the search for the two-year-old. Her sister Natasha Lee has requested her case files be released to them so an independent review can be carried out but the MOD has always refused. A request to discuss the matter direct with Prime Minister David Camera was also turned down. Miss Lee said: ‘It’s taken us nearly 31 years to get here so we are persistent.’ She went on, ‘My dad was a serving soldier in the British armed forces, prepared to die for queen and country. I know that sounds quite dramatic but that’s exactly how it was. ‘It’s about time Katrice’s case was heard.’ Miss Lee said the family has a ‘major problem’ with the MOD who, she claims, has stood in their way as they’ve tried to shed light on what happened to Katrice. Her family, she says, have been victims of ‘political ping pong’. ‘It’s extremely frustration, distressing, that we as a family are constantly fighting,’ she said. ‘Every time we get so far we hit a massive brick wall.’ Natasha believes her sister was taken by a family who could not have children and hopes she has grown up happily. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/cas...nster-1-4453123 |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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| monkalup | Nov 8 2012, 08:35 PM Post #20 |
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2...issing-toddler/ Minister promises action to help family of missing toddler Last updated Thu 8 Nov 2012 World Katrice Lee Germany On 28 November 1981, Katrice Lee was in an army store in Germany with her mother who was buying food for her daughter's 2nd birthday party later that day. Katrice disappeared from her mother's sight and has not been seen since. Ever since, her family have been highly critical of the investigation by the Royal Military Police. Tonight in the House of Commons, Hartlepool MP (speaking on behalf of Katrice's father Richard) said the investigation had been "incompetent, botched and insensitive". He said: "My constituent has suffered the anguish of his daughter going missing every single day for 31 years. "That anguish is deeper with the knowledge that the investigation has been botched from the start. Incompetence has continued for many years, and we are no further forward in finding out what happend to little Katrice. "Thirty-one years is far too long. The minister needs to pledge firm action to reassure Mr Lee tonight." Defence Minister Mark Francois MP promised the family a face-to-face meeting with the Head of the Royal Military Police to question him on the progress of the reopened investigation. He added that there would be no cover up of previous errors made in the original inquiry. He said: "I understand and support the unwavering determination of Katrice's parents to uncover the truth of what happened, and I can assure them that there will be no attempt to cover up any past failings. "I am happy to repeat previous assurances given to the family that the Royal Military Police will be open about any failings that are identified, and that when the time is right we will look again at the issue of disclosure. "I also know that the Provo Marshal Army, the Chief Officer of the Royal Military Police - Brigadier Bill Warren - has indicated that at an appropriate point in his teams work, he will ask a civillian police force to review the entire investigation." |
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Lauran "If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. | |
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