Mother of missing Irish girl Amy Fitzpatrick met Taoiseach Brian Cowen

Taoiseach Brian Cowen met the mother of missing Irish girl Amy Fitzpatrick this afternoon.The 16-year-old disappeared after leaving a friend's house at about 10pm on January 1st to walk to her home on the Costa del Sol in Spain.Her mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, and her partner, Dave Mahon, met Mr Cowen at Government Buildings for half an hour during which they updated him on the investigation.A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Cowen offered the assistance of the Irish embassy in Madrid to help the couple deal with Spanish authorities in the search for Amy.Originally from Clarehall in north Dublin, Amy had been living with her mother in the Riviera del Sol tourist resort in Mijas for the past few years.Her family last month appealed for financial help to hire a private investigator. Her father, Christopher, also called on Spanish authorities to release CCTV footage from the track along which Amy is understood to have walked home.Her aunt, Christine Kenny, said Spanish authorities were still working on the case, but the family had not received any news since June. "We've done as much as we possibly can, but we simply don't have the manpower to search the entire area," she said.

Amy Fitzpatrick renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 100,000 pamphlets with her photos

No sign of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick since her disappearance on January 1 from Mijas Costa. During that period the Guardia Civil have tried to trace two cars and have now found the second vehicle they were looking for.
According to an eyewitness, either Amy or a girl looking like her got into the vehicle, a Mazda, around the time she is thought to have disappeared. The car has apparently been sold within the last three months and although it is undergoing forensic tests the investigators are not hopeful that it will hold any important clues.However the Guardia Civil have stressed that their main focus has been on tracking down the first car they identified that belongs to a neighbour of Amy's. This is a white Ford Fiesta with a British number plate C955SLK. The government's sub-delegate in Málaga province, Hilario López Luna, confirmed last week that finding this car was still a top priority.At the same press conference Sr López Luna admitted that the longer Amy was missing the less likely it was that she had disappeared voluntarily. The same view is shared by the government's delegate in Andalucía, José Lopéz Garzón, who stated that from the start the investigation centred on either her voluntary or involuntary disappearance. He agreed that as time passed the first scenario was less likely but they had not given up hope.
Her family are not giving up hope either. They are renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 50,000 and 100,000 pamphlets with her photos and telephone numbers on so that any information regarding her disappearance, possible sightings or whereabouts can be called in.

Amy Fitzpatrick:a stranger driving a white van had been spotted targeting children in the area

Amy Fitzpatrick, 15, has not been seen since the evening of New Year’s Day, when she left the friend’s home on the Riviera del Sol complex. It is understood that the missing teenager does not have her mobile phone or passport with her.

Officers from the Spanish Civil Guard searched waste ground yesterday in the tourist resort of Riviera del Sol, near Fuengirola, as part of their hunt for the Irish teenager. The land is close to the route that Amy would have taken on her ten-minute walk back to the home she shares with her mother, brother and stepfather.
She spent New Year’s Eve at her friend’s house, babysitting for the girl’s younger brother, and stayed the night before the pair headed to a local shopping centre on January 1. Amy then returned to the friend’s house before heading home at about 10pm.
Her mother, Audrey, 39, said last night that she had not heard anything from her daughter since a telephone call early on the day she vanished.
“The last time we spoke was on New Year’s Day morning when she rang to wish me happy new year.”
Mrs Fitzpatrick, from Dublin, said that she was starting to fear the worst. “I’ve racked my brains for a reason as to why Amy might want to go off on her own and I can’t think of one. She’s never done anything like this before. We’ve traced the route we think she would have taken but found no clues as to what might have happened to her. It’s a route she knows well and involves a walk of about two minutes down a dirt track.
“All I want is for Amy to pick up a phone and ring me or a friend and say she’s OK but at the back of my mind is that horrible fear that something’s happened to her and she can’t.”
The disappearance has shocked Riviera del Sol’s expatriate community. Police have spoken to the couple that Amy had been babysitting for on New Year’s Eve, an English woman and her Spanish husband. They have also questioned the teenager’s school friends, including a dozen British expatriate families who live in the area.
Mrs Fitzpatrick was preparing last night to distribute hundreds of appeal posters showing her daughter’s face. The teenager’s brother, Dean, 17, had spent the day taking police officers to see friends in the hope that someone had heard from her.
Ritchie Harris, a family friend, said: “Amy is a very pretty girl and although she’s mature for her age and likes to mix with an older crowd, she’s only 15 and still very much of a youngster.” Mr Harris, originally from London, said that he had been helping in the search for Amy, and had spent Thursday night scouring her e-mails and speaking to her friends via the online MSN Messenger service for clues as to her whereabouts.
A police helicopter spent part of yesterday flying over waste ground close to Amy’s home. The land, sandwiched between a motorway running along the Costa del Sol and houses leading down to the Mediterranean, is popular with dog walkers. Amy, who has dark, shoulder-length hair, was wearing a black jacket, dark tracksuit bottoms, a black Diesel T-shirt and black furry boots when she was last seen.
She moved to the Costa del Sol with her mother 3½ years ago. Her step-father, Dave McMahon, is an estate agent in the Spanish resort. It is understood that her natural father lives in the Irish Republic.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Málaga was unable to comment on local reports that a stranger driving a white van had been spotted targeting children in the area.