Parents’ birthday plea for Amy to make contact

THE estranged parents of Amy Fitzpatrick pleaded with their missing daughter on her 17th birthday today to make contact and end their nightmare.

Her heartbroken father, Christopher Fitzpatrick, who lives in Donaghamede, Dublin, said he and sons, Dean and Alex, would be going to their local church to light a candle for Amy.

He also published a special message for his daughter to let her know that he was still searching for her.

“Amy, if you can see this, I promised at the beginning of this nightmare I would never give up on the search for you and I will continue until I find you,” he wrote.

Christopher and his sister, Christine Kenny, recently hired private investigator Liam A Brady to help find Amy, who disappeared from her Spanish home nearly 14 months ago.

Mr Brady said he was following a number of lines of inquiry and the case was progressing as he had expected it would.

“It is time for the people responsible for Amy’s disappearance to come forward because, eventually, they will be caught,” he said.

Amy was 15 when she vanished after leaving a friend’s house to walk the short distance to her Spanish home in Mijas, near Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, on January 1, 2008.

The youngster disappeared with just the clothes she was wearing and had no passport or money.

Mr Brady has put up a special page on Amy on his website (www.liamabrady.ie) pointing out how people can help the investigation in confidence.

Amy’s mother, Audrey, who lives in Spain, said she remained confident that she would be reunited with her daughter.

“I don’t think about the possibility Amy will never come home again,” she said. “All my thinking is geared towards the scenario that she will show up again one day.”

She intended spending her daughter’s birthday decorating her bedroom as a coming-home present.

Amy painted her room in her favourite colour, pink, before she disappeared.

“I’m going to put up pink Playboy wallpaper on two of the walls and some pink and white curtains that I hadn’t got round to hanging up until now. It will be good therapy for me,” she said.

Audrey said her message to Amy remained the same: that there was no problem if she did not want to come home. “Just lift up the phone and let us know you are ok,” she urged. “I’d love her to call me but it doesn’t have to be me. She can call a friend.”

Amy’s aunt, Christine, said Amy should not be afraid about contacting her family and could stay with her father, if she wished.

“The past year has been really tough for him — he really needs her,” she said.

Christine said she had asked Pope Benedict to pray for Amy and her family and was delighted that he agreed to include them in his prayers.

lIn Ireland information can be given to the gardaí, while in Spain, the Guardia Civil can be contacted on 0034-636079619.