Missing Teen 'Unhappy' With Costa Life

As dozens of family and friends joined in the hunt for missing 15-year-old Irish girl, Amy Fitzpatrick, who disappeared in Mijas, on Spain's Costa del Sol on New Year's Day, it has emerged that the friend who babysat with Amy on New Year's Eve, Ashley Rubio Rose, believed she was unhappy in Spain and desperately wanted to go back to Ireland.

"She missed her natural father and she'd rowed with her mum about a trip they were due to make back to Ireland on Boxing Day that got cancelled.

"Amy found life in Spain a struggle, maybe more than did her own mum. I know she'd been bullied at school. But the trip back to Ireland had been rearranged for the New Year and she was happier because of it.

"However, she'd nothing apart from the clothes she was wearing. It doesn't add up that she's vanished of her own free will," she said.

In a shocking echo of the ongoing search for little Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal last year, the Irish teenager has disappeared without trace.

Spanish police yesterday stepped up their search as her mother made her emotional appeal for her safe return.

And last night Amy's cousin, Nicola Donohoe, appealed to the teenager to call her if she was safe. "This is your cousin Nicola, I've flown here today to see you," she said after jetting in to Malaga from Dublin.

"You can call the hotline number (0034) 686044181. Send me Bernadine's son's name, so I know it's really you. I'll come and meet you wherever you want privately."

The youngster, who turns 16 next month, was last seen at 10pm on New Year's Day, leaving a friend's house in the Costa del Sol resort of Calahonda, near Fuengirola, where she had been babysitting.

Amy has dark hair, very pale skin and is very slim. The last time she was seen, she was wearing a black coat, a black Diesel T-shirt, dark tracksuit bottoms and black furry boots.

Amy's mother, Audrey, called a press conference yesterday at which she called on the local community for information that may explain her daughter's disappearance. "A girl doesn't just disappear off the face of the earth," said Audrey, who said that she and her current partner, Dave, are "distraught" and "more and more worried that something might have happened."

Addressing Amy directly, in case she has run away from home, Audrey said: "Your brother Dean misses you and we all love you very much."

The family from Coolock, in Dublin, went to live in Spain about three years ago. Her father, who still lives in Dublin, has been informed of her disappearance.

Last night, specialist sniffer dogs trained in detecting the scent of dead bodies were brought in, as detectives admitted they were growing increasingly worried for Amy's safety.

Police are searching wasteland by an unlit dirt track which the teenager was known to use.

Amy regularly used the short cut, which runs alongside an abandoned house, to walk home from the friend's house where she was last seen.

A family friend, who asked not to be named, said: "Her relatives are worried someone had seen Amy walking the route and was lying in wait for her. She had walked the route dozens of times before. Her friend was always begging her to go the long way round, but Amy knew the area well and always felt safe."

(BMcC)