Hope video holds clues to teenager’s vanishing

ONE of the most crucial elements of any missing persons investigation is time. The more of it that passes from the moment of the last sighting, the percentages of finding someone’s loved one that seems to have vanished from the face of the earth shrinks exponentially.

One of the other major challenges for investigating police is keeping the case in the public arena.

That is why detectives have released CCTV footage that shows missing teenager Tea Wright-finger shopping at the Richmond Roadhouse shortly before she disappeared on October 16.

It’s now been four weeks since she was dropped off at a blue Toyota Prado by a friend after leaving the service station.

Police hope that releasing the video will trigger something in the memory of a member of the public and that they come forward to provide investigators further pieces of the puzzle in locating the 19year-old rural station worker.

Townsville Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd said the vision was from “just over an hour” before she was last seen.

The vehicle, which was last seen with Queensland license plates reading 210TLA was obtained “fraudulently” from a Proserpine residence in the weeks leading up to Ms Wright-finger’s disappearance. “We are very concerned for her safety and family’s obviously very concerned,” Inspector Shepherd said.

“But I’m still optimistic. We’ve had no evidence to suggest that anything suspicious has happened, but likewise, we’ve hadno confirmed sightings of her since October 16.”

Inspector Shepherd urged anyone who had sighted or recognised Ms WrightFinger to contact Crime Stoppers.