It’s each mother or father’s worst nightmare, turning your again for a second and dropping a baby in that immediate.
For many, it’s a heart-dropping second quickly changed by a wave of aid minutes later. Nevertheless, for the Lee household, the anxiousness has by no means ended after their toddler daughter Katrice vanished from a procuring centre in 1981.
‘She was two-years-old when she went lacking,’ Richard, Katrice’s father, tells Metro. ‘What sort of baby was she? She was very mischievous, she may very well be cantankerous. There was a five-year age hole between Katrice and her older sister Natasha, however they completely adored one another.
‘I bear in mind the pair of them enjoying disguise and search at some point. Katrice had hidden behind some huge, lengthy curtains however her little ft had been poking out. We may clearly see her, however she thought she was invisible. Natasha got here in and joked “Oh, I can’t see Katrice, I’ll go look some other place”. She was very protecting of her youthful sister.’
Katrice and Natasha lived with dad and mom Richard, from Hartlepool, and Sharon, from Portsmouth, at a British Military base in Paderborn, Germany, the place their father served as a sergeant within the fifteenth/nineteenth King’s Royal Hussars. As a forces household surrounded by different Brits, there was a powerful sense of group within the condominium block the place they lived.
When Katrice turned two on November 28, 1981, her household gathered in Paderborn to mark the event and deliberate a tea social gathering later that day. They sang Blissful Birthday at breakfast, then Richard drove Sharon, her sister Wendy and Katrice to the Navy, Military and Air Power Institutes (NAAFI) procuring complicated in close by Schloß Neuhaus. It was the ultimate payday earlier than Christmas and the procuring complicated was full of individuals. Richard waited within the automotive because the others headed in.
On the check-out, Sharon remembered she had forgotten to seize crisps and cast a path again by the throng of consumers. Wendy noticed Katrice, wearing a blue duffle coat worn over a pinafore costume and pink wellies, toddle alongside after her mom. However when Sharon got here again, Katrice was not along with her. Joined by different consumers, Sharon and Wendy shouted out the teen’s identify and checked each aisle.
Initially, it was unclear whether or not the Royal Navy Police (RMP) or the German Bundespolizei ought to lead the investigation, which meant important time was misplaced. Witnesses left the grocery store and workers completed shift earlier than interviews started and border workers weren’t knowledgeable of the incident immediately, regardless of the actual fact Paderborn is simply two hours away from the Netherlands and Belgium.
The RMP, who did finally take management of the investigation, appeared satisfied Katrice, who didn’t communicate any German, had wandered off in the direction of the River Lippe which stretched previous the NAAFI procuring complicated, presumably to see some geese there. The Lee household disagreed. Katrice didn’t like water – she didn’t take pleasure in baths, for instance – so it will not make sense for her to strategy a loud and fast-flowing river.
‘We had been accused of clutching at straws,’ sighs Richard. ‘I don’t assume each avenue was explored or that the household’s needs had been revered. The RMP closed ranks and we’ve bought nowhere.’
Richard served within the British Military for 34 years and gained medals for his efforts. In interviews after Katrice vanished, his voice by no means faltered and he stood steadfast in entrance of cameras. However behind closed doorways, it was a special story.
He explains: ‘When Katrice went lacking we had two bogs. I’d go into the smaller one and cry my eyes out. Then I’d wash my face and are available again out as a “courageous soldier” within the eyes of anybody else. I’d been introduced up the place a person couldn’t be seen to indicate his feelings. If I did get upset, my dad would say “I’ll provide you with one thing to cry about” then put a hand over my head.
‘That stayed with me. From the skin, I used to be in management. I’d nod, smile and canopy my emotions. However I used to be hurting badly on the within, my thoughts was not my very own.
‘I additionally turned to the drink. I’d go to work drunk, my thoughts wasn’t my very own. At one level I made plans to finish my very own life and determined the place I’d do it, the underground automotive park within the block of flats the place we lived. However I managed to climb out of that pit. I realised I had a job to do. I wanted to seek out out what had occurred to Katrice, I couldn’t let her down.’
One principle which retains Richard up at night time is that his daughter may have been taken and raised by a special household elsewhere in Europe. That is bolstered by the truth that, in 2017, it was revealed a person with a inexperienced saloon automotive had been seen with a lady who matched Katrice’s description within the carpark of the NAAFI procuring complicated the day she vanished.
Signal as much as this 12 months's Metro Lifeline problem
Somebody is reported lacking each 90 seconds within the UK. Meaning life is lonely, scary and unsure for 170,000 households yearly.
Lacking Individuals is the one UK charity devoted to reconnecting them and their family members and that's why this 12 months Metro is proudly supporting them for our 2025 Lifeline marketing campaign.
To assist elevate important funds for the charity we might love you to affix us on on 3 Might for a 25km, 53km or 106km hike on the gorgeous Isle of Wight.
Registration begins at simply £15 with a fundraising minimal of £240 (25km) / £360 (58km). Alternatively, you possibly can pay to your place and set your personal fundraising goal.
Whether or not you wish to do it as a gaggle or are signing up solo, as a part of Crew Lifeline, you’ll obtain tons of assist and recommendation, so that each step you are taking could make a large distinction serving to these whose family members have disappeared.
Click on right here to enroll and discover out extra.
Richard, 75, explains: ‘We later came upon there was a profitable commerce happening with individuals promoting youngsters to the east. I additionally heard about nuns in Italy who had been promoting youngsters within the Nineteen Eighties.
‘All of this got here to gentle years later however these avenues weren’t explored by the police. Finally what we’ve had since day one is an absence of honesty and readability. I nonetheless wish to know who, in 1981, had determined Katrice had gone into the river. Was there any proof?
‘I simply want the police had tried to affix the dots from day one, not from 36 years later.’
In 2000, Katrice’s case was reopened beneath the identify ‘Operation Bute.’ The identical 12 months, Crimewatch aired a reconstruction of the disappearance on what would have been her twenty first birthday in November. A suspect was arrested, however later launched with out cost.
An nameless lady left a curious message with Richard and mentioned ‘search for your daughter in France’, however nothing got here of this.
In 2012, the Royal Navy Police admitted errors had been made through the first investigation and, for the second time, the case was reopened. The River Alme was pinpointed as an space of curiosity, attributable to info that exposed a inexperienced saloon automotive – just like the one seen on the NAAFI procuring centre on the day Katrice vanished – had been seen within the space.
5 years later, in 2017, an e-fit of a person police needed to talk to was launched. The next 12 months a staff of navy personnel and civilian forensic consultants introduced they deliberate to excavate a stretch of the riverbank alongside the River Alme. There was hope in 2019, when an individual in Swindon was arrested ‘in reference to the disappearance of Katrice Lee.’ However the man, a former serviceman, was launched with out cost two days later.
‘The household was by no means given sufficient updates,’ Richard says. He divorced from Sharon in 1989 however they continue to be united of their seek for Katrice. He provides. ‘In the course of the River Alme search in 2018, police discovered bone fragments which went away for evaluation. Sharon and Natasha had been strolling on eggshells for about six weeks, however I used to be satisfied it wasn’t Katrice.
‘DNA revealed that they really belonged to a horse. However we didn’t discover that out from the police, they posted the data on Twitter earlier than they instructed us. We bought cellphone calls from pals which tell us the bones weren’t Katrice’s. It was two hours later {that a} police liaison officer referred to as to tell of us the information and apologise for one more c***-up.’
In 2020 the RMP made the choice to stop energetic investigations into Katrice’s disappearance.
‘Please bear in mind my story'
Sharon wrote a poem for her daughter which fashioned a part of Lacking Individuals’s marketing campaign ‘The whole lot Stops For Tea’. You’ll be able to learn or watch it beneath
‘Please bear in mind my story,
Please bear in mind my face,
For I’m the kid who vanished with no hint,
Gone from my household who stay in despair,
Gone from my family members,
Are you aware the place?
The month and the years received’t diminish their ache,
They stay with the hope they’ll meet me once more.
‘I’ve been taken by somebody, are you aware who?
‘Please assist me, I’m lacking and counting on you.’
By way of a long time of frustration, the Lee household have obtained assist from charity Lacking Individuals. Natasha, who sewed a button from one in all Katrice’s cardigans into her marriage ceremony costume when she bought married, has labored intently with the charity to maintain her sister’s identify within the highlight.
‘Earlier than, there had been no one we may speak to about what we had been going by,’ Richard, who was discharged from the Military in 1999, provides.
Signal as much as the Metro Lifeline problem in assist of Lacking Individuals right here
‘The charity has been an enormous assist, we bow to their experience. Natasha introduced Katrice’s case to Lacking Individuals and so they helped get protection on Channel 5. We each fundraise for them, I promote automotive stickers and t-shirts.’
Richard hopes to fulfill Sir Keir Starmer at some point to debate his daughter’s case. In Might 2024, he travelled to Downing Avenue in an try handy his service medals again to the British Military in protest over the dealing with of his daughter’s case. Outdoors Quantity 10, he posed in a black t-shirt with Katrice’s face on it with the phrases ‘STILL MISSING’ above the photograph. Richard was instructed he couldn’t hand again his medals as they had been classed as private belongings.
Later that 12 months, he and Natsaha travelled to Germany and the precise spot the place the little lady vanished from. There, {a photograph} exhibition referred to as ‘Lacking Katrice’ passed off, because the NAAFI grocery store is now an artwork gallery. He hopes to at some point discover solutions as to what occurred to his daughter.
‘My intention is to get solutions. It’s so simple as that,’ says Richard, who lives alone. ‘I’ve by no means misplaced hope, hope is everlasting. It’s the very last thing any household with a lacking baby has. Hope by no means dies.’
An MOD Spokesperson mentioned: ‘Our ideas and sympathies stay with Katrice Lee’s household. If anybody has any new info regarding the disappearance of Katrice, please contact us on 0800 616 888.
‘The Defence Severe Crime Unit assumed primacy of the investigation in 2022 into the disappearance of Katrice Lee and we proceed to attraction for brand new proof.‘
Do you could have a narrative you’d wish to share? Get in contact by emailing Kirsten.Robertson@metro.co.uk
Share your views within the feedback beneath.