‘I miss you... please come home Amy'

THE 17-year-old brother of missing Dublin girl Amy Fitzpatrick has written her a heartfelt letter begging her to come home, and asking her not to be scared if she’s in a place she cannot escape from.

Yesterday marked the second week since the 15-year-old went missing in Malaga, having left a friend’s house at 10pm on New Year’s Day.

Police are following more than 200 lines of inquiry, including trying to trace an older man they say Amy made friends with over the internet.

But they admit they have no concrete clues and as her family become more desperate, her older brother decided to write and distribute his own letter to her.

“We really miss you and are all worried sick. Mam is crying all the time and the house is just empty without you and all your noise,” he wrote on the back of one of her “missing” posters.

“I miss you a lot. I even miss you stealing my CDs and pinching roast potatoes off my plate at dinner. Please, please come home Amy,” he wrote.

“Remember when you used to love going out on the back of my moped and driving around? I’m thinking of that a lot and the laugh we had. I know you wanted to ride the moped but you were too young. But I promise when you come back home, I’ll give you lessons on how to do it right, and maybe you can even get one for yourself,” he said.

He deals also with the increasingly likely scenario that Amy did not just run away and is hiding in a friend’s house.

“If you’re some place where you can’t come home or even get in touch, then don’t be scared. The police are out looking for you with dogs and helicopters, and I’m sure they’ll find you and bring you back,” he wrote.

He tells her everyone is praying for her. “Don’t worry. It will soon be over. Hope you get this message. Love you loads. Dean.”

Earlier this week he spent an hour with police going over a list of her friends and places she usually went. Both of them came to the Costa del Sol with their mother, Audrey, three-and-a-half years ago and have lived there since.

Family spokesman Franco Rey said that after speaking to the police on Monday, he felt helpless and wanted to do something more to help find her. “He decided to write this letter and we hope it might help,” he explained.

The Guardia Civil, who are in charge of the investigation, have compiled a long list of people Amy has been in touch with regularly, including by instant messaging on the internet.

Sources say one of them is an older man who had made several approaches to her in the past. Police are trying to identify the man and want to talk to him.

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GARDAÍ in Wexford are investigating a reported sighting of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick.

The Irish girl vanished from the Costa del Sol on New Year’s Day. An exhaustive search has failed to find her.

A young woman, matching Amy’s description, was spotted leaving Mace petrol station on Trinity Street, and getting into a car on Sunday evening, January 13. Gardaí have been informed.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “Her picture has been all over newspapers in the past few weeks and I was so convinced that it was her that I took the registration of the car.”

A Garda spokesman said he was unable to comment.