My mum vanished without a trace 20 years ago – someone knows what happened to her… I have a message for her killer | The Sun
THE heartbroken daughter of a woman who vanished without a trace 20 years ago has told of her family’s pain.
Lauren Redpath was just 17 years old when her mum, Sandra Gant, went missing from her home in Clacton- on-Sea, Essex, on November 15, 2003.
Although four people were arrested on suspicion of murder, no one has ever been charged and her body has never been found.
On the evening she disappeared Sandra, who was 48 at the time, had enjoyed a drink with two friends at a pal’s flat.
She left and began the walk back to her home on Wellesley Road – but was never seen again.
Now, 20 years on, Lauren says the loss of her mum has never gotten any easier.
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She told The Sun: “Year after year it's just horrible to know we still don’t know what happened to her.
“We obviously don't think that there is any way that our mum could still be alive.
“It is clear something happened to her and someone knows exactly what happened.
“All we want is to know what happened to her. We’ve had 20 years of hell just waiting for answers. I cannot do 20 more. We just need to know.
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"We will never give up on finding her."
Lauren’s grandfather David died before learning what happened to his daughter, and she fears the same could soon happen to her grandmother.
She is now pleading with anyone who has any information to come forward.
'20 YEARS OF HELL'
She said: “Someone knows what happened to my mum. If I could talk to them I would say ‘put yourself in our shoes’.
“If it was your mum who was missing you would want people to come forward.
“Even if you think it's something that’s irrelevant, the slightest bit of information, just please come forward and end our suffering.
“When she went missing I never would have thought we would be here 20 years later.
“She just vanished off the face of the earth. That is the hardest part – we just don’t understand how someone can just disappear into thin air without a trace."
“She just vanished off the face of the earth. That is the hardest part – we just don’t understand how someone can just disappear into thin air without a trace.
Sandra had three grandchildren when she vanished, but six more have been born since.
Mum-of-four Lauren explained: “It is hard for the younger ones to understand what happened to her.
We just don’t understand how someone can just disappear into thin air without a trace.
“They don’t understand why don’t we have a resting place for her.
“They don’t understand why we can’t visit her with flowers like other relations who have died.”
Sandra had a drinking problem at the time of her disappearance, and her family believes this may have delayed the police's search.
Sandra said: “Mum had a heart of gold but she did have a drinking problem.
“We sometimes feel her case wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been because of that.
“Sometimes we think the police’s thinking was ‘oh she’s one of the local alcoholics. She’s drinking somewhere and will turn up’.
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“We wonder sometimes if it was someone else a search party would have be right out there looking for her.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the force's cold case team on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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