‘My family has been left in limbo for 25 years. I need to know what happened to my daughter’
NThirty years after Carmel Fenech’s disappearance, her family is still searching for her. Her sister Mandy often sleeps in her car, parked outside places Carmel visited before she disappeared in 1998, and is unwilling to give up the search.
Carmel is one of five siblings in a close-knit family in Peckham, and her absence has never lost its grip on them. Time has passed, lives have moved on, but the unanswered question of what happened to him remains as fresh as ever.
His mother, Deirdre Fenech, said: Independent: “Even now I am looking for a 16-year-old girl, not a 40-year-old woman.
“This is my baby. The child I carried with me for nine months… He hasn’t been around since I held him in my arms. I will never stop looking for him.”
Independent has raised £165,000 to launch SafeCall, a new free service that will help the 70,000 children reported missing each year find support and safety no matter what, and continues to campaign for the cause. Ms Fenech knows how heartbreaking the pain of a child’s disappearance is.
donate Here or text SAFE to 70577 to donate £10 to Missing People, enough for one child to get help.
When Carmel, like many 14-year-olds, started making new friends, going to parties, and staying out late, her mother thought nothing of it.
But what he didn’t know was that Carmel had been introduced to crack cocaine. He didn’t look like a drug addict and was never rude or moody. “He always had a great personality, he was always fun,” his mother said.
When Ms Fenech went to a friend’s house to look for him, she was not told that Carmel had fallen into a “bad crowd” and was addicted to drugs.
“This hit me like a sledgehammer,” Ms Fenech said.
Carmel began disappearing for days at a time, sleeping in abandoned garages, unfamiliar houses, or on stairwells. “Me and my son, we searched everywhere… we kicked in the doors of houses, we came across big drug dealers looking for him,” he added.
This has become a routine part of their lives. Her family would find her, or she would return home with a radiant smile and disappear again a few days later.
“I was filled with anger, not at him, but at these people he was associating with. I would drop my kids off at school in the morning, go look for him, then come back, take them home… then my son and I were walking the streets at one, two, three, four, five in the morning,” she explained.
Ms Fenech has lost count of the number of times she has reported herself missing.
Even though Carmel knew she could always go home and her mother could come back, she still went looking for her to make sure she was okay.
Hoping to distance him from the people he surrounded himself with, Mrs Fenech moved the family to Crawley in West Sussex.
But even then Carmel continued to leave and remained in London for days before returning home.
On the day her daughter disappeared completely, Ms Fenech was told Carmel was at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court. A police officer spoke to Carmel on the stairs as she was leaving, but Carmel told him to get lost.
It was stated that Carmel was seen leaving the courthouse with an unidentified person.
Detective Inspector Chris Rambour, of the Surrey and Sussex major crime squad, said: “We are particularly looking to identify and speak to a man who was seen with Carmel on May 21, 1998. There is no description of him at this time but he clearly knew her.”
He said this information had been confirmed since the lawsuit was filed, but his mother disputed it and believed Carmel was alone.
Ms. Fenech never expected that this would be the last time Carmel was seen. He had planned a caravan vacation for his family and was considering giving his daughter a week before calling.
But when Carmel returned two weeks after leaving court, Ms Fenech had received no phone call from him.
Ms Fenech added: “That’s when I realized. You could feel in the pit of your stomach that something was wrong.”
She said she was disappointed in the police in charge of Carmel’s case and feared she would never know what happened to her daughter.
Ms Fenech experiences a feeling of “uncertainty” as she is afraid to move house in case Carmel comes home. “It’s a strange, scary world we live in, but we don’t know it,” he added.
Det Insp Rambour said: “Our search for Carmel continues and our thoughts remain with Carmel and her family throughout this investigation as we try to find the answers they deserve.
“Carmel has not been forgotten and we are once again appealing to the public for any information that could help us find her.”
Paul Joseph, head of Missing People helplines, said: “We continue to offer our full support to Deirdre Fenech, the mother of missing 16-year-old Carmel Fenech. Our thoughts are with Deirdre and her family at this incredibly difficult time and we are committed to standing by them for as long as they need us.”
“No family should have to face the pain of the loss of a loved one alone and we will continue to do everything we can to support their search and well-being.”
Please donate now To the Independent and Missing Persons’ Safe Call campaign, which raised £165,000 to create a free nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support.
If you or a loved one is lost, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
