INVESTIGATORS have launched a fresh appeal to find a Brit mum who shockingly vanished seven years ago without leaving a trace.
Georgina Gharsallah, then 30, disappeared from her seaside hometown of Worthing, West Sussex, in broad daylight on March 7, 2018.
Prime Features AgencyGeorgina Gharsallah has been missing for nearly seven years[/caption]
Sussex PoliceGeorgina was captured on CCTV inside a shop on March 7, 2018, the day she vanished[/caption]
Sussex PoliceCops uncovered another CCTV clip showing a woman believed to be Georgina walking with another female later on that same day[/caption]
She had left her mum Andrea Gharsallah‘s home on that spring morning and headed to a shop to get her phone fixed.
The mum-of-two was then supposed to go to the local JobCentre in the hunt for work and on to meet her dad Gasem – but she never showed up.
Nearly seven years on, cops are no closer to finding out what happened to Georgina.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Andy Wolstenholme has now launched a fresh plea to help find what happened to Georgina.
He wrote in a letter: “We’re asking you to do the right thing and share the information with us. Do it for yourself, to be free from that burden of knowledge.
“Do it for Georgina’s family and friends, to ease the anguish of not knowing what happened to her. Do it for Georgina, because she deserves justice.”
Georgina was captured on CCTV at around 10 in the morning she disappeared.
It shows her entering the Clifton Food and Wine shop in Clifton Road, Worthing, where she asked for help with her phone.
The owner spoke to her for around five minutes before directing her to a nearby phone shop, but she never made it there or visited the JobCentre.
Tracking of her mobile phone at the time showed it left the network shortly after 11:30 am – while still connected to a local mast in Worthing.
She was next seen in an eight-second CCTV clip walking with another woman – her last verified sighting.
Georgina’s family were not initially worried as she had drifted between friends in Brighton and a former partner.
But when she failed to make arrangements for her two young sons, who are now teenagers, she was reported missing.
After a police investigation, the case was recorded as a homicide in 2019.
Officers said there was “no proof of life” although admitted they have no evidence of what happened to her.
No trace of her has ever been recorded despite a £20,000 reward, Crimewatch appeals and a Crowdfunded campaign by her family.
However, a second grainy CCTV footage was released showing a woman who could be Georgina walking through the town with another woman at around 3.30pm on the same day.
“We have no idea who the other woman is at all. Nobody’s come forward,” says Andrea.
Andrea has been plagued ever since by horrific thoughts of what has happened to her daughter – with armchair detectives spouting theories.
Sussex police’s letter in full
SENIOR senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Andy Wolstenholm made a fresh plea to find the missing mum.
“Georgina is loved and missed by so many people – her mother, her father, her children, her sisters, and her friends.
“They are desperate for answers about what happened to her on this day in March 2018. Don’t you think they deserve to know?
“Put yourself in their shoes. They’ve endured sleepless nights waiting for Georgina to come home. They’ve replayed conversations and moments spent with Georgina, not realising at the time they would be the last ones before she disappeared.
“They’ve not been able to move forward with their lives for fear of leaving Georgina behind. Imagine if that was someone you loved – how would you cope with such torment?
“You have the power to change that. The information you have could bring an end to all the unanswered questions and provide some form of closure to Georgina’s family. Keeping that to yourself is a lot to have on your conscience, isn’t it?
“We know you might be scared, but that’s why we give people the option to report anonymously through Crimestoppers. No one ever needs to know the information came from you.
‘You might not know the whole truth, and you might think the small snippet of information you have is irrelevant. It’s not.
“Are you protecting someone? If so, ask yourself the question – would they do the same for you if things got tough or the tables were turned?
“We’re asking you to do the right thing and share the information with us. Do it for yourself, to be free from that burden of knowledge.
“Do it for Georgina’s family and friends, to ease the anguish of not knowing what happened to her. Do it for Georgina, because she deserves justice. What’s stopping you?”
“Seven years. Seven long years, you’ve kept a secret that is causing so much pain and heartbreak. Isn’t it time you gave it up?
Flurries of grisly messages from people claiming to know what happened to Georgina have continuously been sent to Andrea.
Some suggested she was butchered and burned by a drugs gang, who then scattered her remains “all over”.
Andrea has pleaded with online sleuths to stop spreading stories that “are not supported by evidence”.
She said: “Whatever theories any of you may think you have come up with, there is absolutely nothing to confirm or corroborate those.
She said: “Whatever theories any of you may think you have come up with, there is absolutely nothing to confirm or corroborate those.
Mum’s agony
Andrea previously said her gut tells her that her daughter came to harm.
She told The Sun in 2020 she fears sex trafficking, abduction or suicide.
She said: “I have gone through different stages. We had the trafficking [theory], the suicide.
“Each one I have dismissed.
“A while back they thought she could have been trafficked out of the country, but other investigators said that’s very unlikely – they don’t traffick victims out, they traffick them in.”
Andrea recently said of Georgina’s disappearance: “Our lives have not been the same and never will be, for the emptiness of you not being here is with us every day.
“There are no words to say how much this has affected us, but I will never ever give up on you.”
Andrea also accused the force of failing to “conduct a proper CCTV search” around the time of Georgina’s disappearance, and of refusing to film a reconstruction for “strategic reasons”.
She claimed: “We’ve had to take the lead in the investigation and have been forced to because the police have been so reluctant to do the basics never mind go the extra mile.”
The mum staged her own video reconstruction of her daughter’s disappearance – with the help of former top Scotland Yard detective Clive Driscoll and investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.
The pair managed to find an actress who looks just like Georgina for the shoot.
Prime Features AgencyGeorgina’s mum Andrea with a missing poster sign for her daughter[/caption]
SuppliedGeorgina Gharsallah pix supplied to sophie Evans by mum Andrea[/caption]
Prime Features AgencyGeorgina’s family fear sex trafficking, suicide or abduction could be behind her disappearance[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
