Missing Amy's mother to be evicted from home in Spain
Monday August 03 2009
THE mother of missing Irish schoolgirl Amy Fitzpatrick is being evicted from her Spanish home after falling behind on mortgage repayments.
Yesterday Audrey Fitzpatrick said she would lose her home after the family fell €38,000 in arrears on repayments for the property at Mijas in southern Spain, and that her bank had ordered the house to be repossessed.
And she said she is in a state of "panic" because there will be no one at home when her daughter, who she is convinced is still alive, returns.
Fifteen-year-old Amy disappeared on New Year's Day 2008 after she left a friend's house to walk home along an unlit path she used as a short cut.
Her mother said Spanish police are re-interviewing potential witnesses in an effort to find her daughter, but that the Irish embassy has not offered help.
She and her partner, David Mahon, are €38,000 in arrears on repayments for their home and will now be forced to find rented accommodation.
The couple only returned to work in recent weeks and she said they could not afford to pay their mortgage, having spent their savings trying to find missing Amy.
"I panic if I go anywhere or travel because I think she might build up the courage to come back and I won't be there," she said last night.
"She's very like myself, very stubborn and strong-minded. She's very independent, and that's the one thing I know will keep her safe. She's either up the road or thousands of miles away.
"We have a monthly meeting with them [the police]. They apologised for not having any new leads or evidence, and the only thing they can do is re-interview people. Between sightings and phone calls, they're going to do everything again.
"It's 19 months now since she went missing. The only people who have been the best to us is the Guardia Civil. I don't have a line to the Irish embassy.
Contact
"We have never been given the number of anybody in the embassy, we can only call Monday to Friday from 10am to 2pm. We've never had a phone call to ask is there anything that can be done." The Department of Foreign Affairs said that the Irish embassy was in contact with the family and offering "full assistance".
But Ms Fitzpatrick says there is no contact person at the embassy in Madrid to speak with about the case, and that she could only ring the embassy in a four-hour period every day.
The family have engaged a private detective agency to help investigate Amy's disappearance but it has not found any new leads.
- Paul Melia
