A mum whose daughter went missing on a London canal towpath had her worst fears confirmed by an unexpected source.
Ros Gross’ 14-year-old daughter Alice vanished while walking along a canal towpath in the west London borough of Ealing on August 28, 2014. For 34 days, Ros and her devastated family lived in hope the teen would return home, with the community rallying around them setting up meal rotas and keeping Ros, her husband Joe and elder daughter Nina company.
Speaking to The Mirror, Ros, 61 said: “Nina set up a social media group and we had about 25,000 followers.
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(Image: PA)
“We called in the charity Missing People very early in the campaign, and they organised the posters, and a stall at Ealing Broadway. They had a 24-hour helpline which was critical – because police’s Victim Support only kicks in when a crime has been committed, so we really needed Missing People.”
Alice had been suffering from anorexia, and because of the mental health concerns, the teenager was seen as high risk. Although the family chose not to reveal Alice’s eating disorder.
(Image: PA)
“She hadn’t been well and we wanted to maintain some sort of privacy for her.”
Six days after Alice went missing, the police found her rucksack, at which point the murder squad got involved. Seven days on from her disappearance, detectives released CCTV footage of the last known sighting of Alice as she walked alone along the Grand Union Canal towpath at Brentford Lock.
Alice’s family waited in dread for the police to come knocking, however, it was the family dentist that shattered Ros’ desperate hope of a reunion.
(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
“I was at home that Friday, dusting for some reason, when the phone rang. It was our dentist – the police wanted permission to use Alice’s dental records”, she recalled.
“My heart sank. Even though everybody else seemed hopeful, at that moment, I felt we were not going to have a great outcome.”
The man who would have been charged with the teen’s murder was a foreign national who had hanged himself from a tree a mile from the towpath where it’s thought he abducted her. Alice’s family have asked the the man’s identity isn’t published.
For information on how to support Missing People, visit missingpeople.org.uk