Family despair as no clues revealed

CONVOYS of jeeps roared away from the football pitch where two helicopters with thermal censor cameras were ready to take off.

The grey, overcast skies threatened more rain as the few volunteers that turned up to look for Amy Fitzpatrick stood about, not sure what to do next.

They had just been told they were not needed as the search for the 15-year-old who disappeared nine days before would be carried out by professionals.

Amy’s mother Audrey, made yet another plea for anyone who might know anything to come forward. “If they can remember anything, even the smallest thing, they can ring up,” she said.

There was a slight note of desperation in her voice as all around her the police, firemen, civil protection and Red Cross organised themselves into teams to search the steep hills and deep gullies within a 6km radius.

The seven sniffer dogs, specially trained to trace dead bodies, added to the feeling this was not just a search for a live person but for clues to her disappearance, or at worst, for a body.

Small groups headed out onto the hilltops, which are half excavated for yet more apartments from where glimpses of the angry sea could be caught.

But the serious work was being carried out lower down the hills, just five minutes walk from the house Amy left at about 10pm on Tuesday week last. Members of the local police, the Guardia Civilia, searched the deep ravine either side of the unlit dirt track, that they believe she took as a short cut.

Under the scrutiny of television cameras, the search came to a halt as what seemed to be a pair of tights were found. Plain-clothes detectives were called to the scene and took them away in a black plastic bag.

By now most of the Costa has heard about the missing Irish girl. Publicans, Gerry and Catherine Higgins from Galway who own the Spanish Arch in Fuengirola and Gerry O’Sullivan of O’Sullivan’s bar nearby, came to help with the staff from their pubs.

Mr O’Sullivan’s daughter went to school with Amy for a short while. He understood the problems the Donaghmede girl had settling into school. “It’s not easy. My daughter changed school twice,” he said.

Amy hadn’t been to school since summer 2006.

As the convoy of police set off he said what many have been muttering; “It’s nearly too late”, referring to the fact that the first significant search is taking place more than a week after Amy went missing.

But Audrey and her partner Dave Mahon, who have been living in Spain for more than three years, were adamant that the Spanish police have been excellent.

“The police have pulled out all the stops from day one. They have been just fabulous,” he told a press conference after the day’s search.

Audrey responded to claims made by people who know the missing girl that Amy was a troubled child and that she had frequently run away from home for long periods of time before.

“I can understand that Amy’s friends are shocked and upset that she is missing. But I really don’t think it is helpful for them to be giving interviews,” she said and added it was upsetting that a lot of misinformation was appearing in Irish newspapers.

Her partner put a protective arm around her shoulder when she broke down as she told that her nickname for her daughter was “Baby Bunton”, because of all she ate but yet never put on weight.

Amy was a normal teenager, she told the 20 Spanish and Irish television cameras and dozens of reporters at the press conference organised by their media liaison person, Franco Rey. Of course they had arguments and she had tantrums.

“Life is very different from when I was growing up in Dublin. The kids grow up quickly and are under more pressures,” she said.

But Amy and her 17-year-old brother Dean are the centre of their lives. “We have a lot of laughs together,” she said. She is keeping the fridge stocked for when she comes through that door, she added.