Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year’s Day 1st January 2008 at approximately 10pm when she left her friends house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa del Sol to take the 10 minute walk home.


Amy was 15 at the time of her disappearance; she has black hair, blue eyes and has a pale complexion. She is 1.65m tall and was wearing dark coloured crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with the word “DIESEL” in various different colours when she was last seen. She had no money, phone or passport as she was still on her Mum’s passport. She was wearing her friend’s clothes and carrying a bag of her own dirty clothes.

She turned 16 on the 7th February 2008. On the night Amy disappeared she was babysitting in her friend Ashley’s home. Ashley watched Amy walk away form her door and that was the last time Amy was seen.


Amy is originally from Clare Hall on Dublin’s North side and she moved to The Costa del sol with her Mam Audrey her Brother Dean and her Stepdad Dave four years ago

Her computer and phone have been checked thoroughly and nothing was found to suggest she has left voluntarily with someone. Amy has numerous sites on social networking sites, e.g. bebo, my space, face book and MSN and none of them have been touched since she went missing.

Anyone with information on what happened to Amy or her whereabouts is urged to immediately contact


Amy’s Mam: 0034 617 561 319 or missingamy@live.co.uk


SPANISH POLICE 0034 952 479 030

If you were in Spain around the time that Amy disappeared and you saw something please if you havnt done so already go to the police. Amy needs to be found and we need your help to find her.
To speak to the police in English 0034 636 079 619



FOR AMY'S OFFICIAL POSTER PLEASE VISIT HER OFFICIAL BEBO PAGE, http://www.bebo.com/helpustofindamyAND LOOK IN HER ALBUMS.

the day Portuguese police are expected to announce they are shelving the Madeleine McCann case, Ulsterwoman Niamh Brennan tells AARON TINNEY how the McCanns contacted her and why she is driven to look for the 100,000 youngsters reported missing every year


Niamh Brennan's every spare minute is spent hunched over her laptop staring at the haunting faces of hundreds of missing children.

The Belfast-born woman's determination comes from an event which has gripped the world for 444 days.

On May 3, 2007, cherubic Madeleine McCann vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz as her parents dined in a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.

She was nearly four, and despite the image of the little blonde girl's face being burned on the minds of almost everyone on the planet, and a massive police investigation, she has never been found.

Her parents, heart specialist Gerry and GP Kate, both 40, have spoken of their "despair and anguish" since being named as formal suspects or "arguidos" in the case.
Niamh says it hit her almost as hard.

"It turned my stomach and hit me really hard when Maddie went missing because she was so young.

"I just looked at my own two kids Conor and Cara and felt sick. I knew how tortured I would feel if anything happened to them."

The 37-year-old, who moved to live in Bangor when a child but now resides in Essex, has a full-time career in corporate hospitality as well as being a mum to a seven-year-old boy and two-year-old girl.

But she said she felt the need to fit in time to launch a missing children's search agency because Maddie's vanishing was so sickening.
After meeting five other mothers online, Niamh encouraged them to channel their concerns into an internet agency to track missing children across the globe. It went live last September under the title Forever Searching – grimly prophetic as not one of the youngsters they are tracing have yet been found.

It works by using a network of worldwide volunteers registered on the site to distribute posters, emails and press releases.

Forever Searching also sets up pages on social networking websites for each of the children they investigate.

Niamh said: "The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children advises that the key to locating missing children is to keep awareness high.

"The fact that we can reach across the globe takes the burden off the families who are already suffering enough without worrying they are not spreading their searches far enough across the world."

But even the most highly-publicised hunts can be fruitless.

The McCanns approached Forever Searching just after the site launched as part of a global campaign to find their daughter.

Niamh said: "They are still suffering immensely. They contacted us because they knew we could reach people from around the world to help them in their search.

"The thing that has surprised me about them is that even though they are in pain, they are so strong and determined. They won't give up."

Updated: 12 June 2008

Amber Alert deadline

A VOLUNTEER organisation from the UK has joined The Resident in urging people to lobby MEPs in support of an Amber Alert system throughout Europe.

Forever Searching, an internet group that aims to raise awareness of missing children throughout the world, is urging the public to lobby MEPs to support and sign the written declaration “Emergency cooperation in recovering missing children”.

A spokesman from Forever Searching told The Resident: “We have been lobbying MEPs about this declaration since it was unveiled, so far we have had no responses but we will continue to lobby them using various means including facebook and myspace.”

MEPs only have three months to sign this declaration from the date it was unveiled (April 21) before the motion expires. The deadline for this is July 21 so European citizens have six weeks left to persuade their MEPs to sign this vital declaration.

As of June 5, 211 MEPs had signed the declaration so a further 182 signatures from MEPs are needed to pass the declaration.

You can sign the online petition supporting the written declaration by visiting www.foreversearching.com, where there is also other information about children who are missing worldwide.

For further information about how to lobby your MEP and the European alert system see last week’s edition of The Resident (June 6) or contact Daisy Samspon at The Resident by calling 282 342 936 or emailing daisy.sampson@hotmail.com

Do you have a view on this story? Email: editor@the-resident.com