Missing girl still not found

1 May 2007

BRUSSELS – The search for Annick van Uytsel, the girl that disappeared in the early hours on Saturday morning, will continue today, a coordination meeting decided on Tuesday.

Intensive search actions took place all day on Monday. Child Focus has disseminated posters of the girl to all Belgian stations. Police, justice authorities and Child Focus held an emergency meeting at the courthouse in Louvain. The police also received reinforcements.

“We are searching along different paths,” says Patrick Vits, spokesperson for the public prosecution department in Louvain. “We are looking for the girl herself, for her bicycle and are looking into her mobile phone data.”

The routes the girl usually took to get home have been searched. Her mobile phone data show she was in the search area on the night in question. Some 20 local police from Diest and 50 federal police were helped by volunteers from child protection.

The 18-year-old girl from Kaggevinne near Diest disappeared on Saturday morning after a party. There has been no sign from her since. “She and two girlfriends went to a party in the Gildezaal in Schaffen,” says her father Eddy.

Annick started to feel unwell. “At about 4 am she decided to cycle home with two girlfriends. Their ways parted along the railway line in Schaffen. A half hour later she sent an sms to her boyfriend who was at a large scouting event in Brussels.”

In the sms she said that she didn’t feel well and was going home. No one has seen or heard from her since. It is about 2 km from the railway lines to her parents’ home.

On Saturday morning Annick’s parents noticed that their daughter had not arrived home. Her mother tried to phone her at 6.30am. “Her mobile rang, but there was no answer. When I tried a little while later the phone was off,” says her mother Martine. The signal from her mobile phone was last picked up by the GSM antenna at the industrial terrain of Webbekom.

It seems unlikely that Annick ran away from home. Friends and family say she was very happy. “She had a boyfriend that she was crazy about, had a lot of friends at the Catholic Student Union (KSJ) and was studying Fashion at the HAM instituted in Mechelen.”

Subject: Belgian news