We think someone’s taken her
Father of backpacker missing after beach party fears worst
THE parents of a British backpacker missing in Cambodia yesterday faced the grim reality they might never see her alive again after a fifth day of searching failed to find her.
Amelia Bambridge’s father Phil, who arrived on Cambodia’s Koh Rong island yesterday to join the search, admitted he was ‘not doing very well’ and feared the worst.
The Vietnam-based English teacher said he believed Amelia, 21, might have been abducted and dragged into the jungle after attending a night-time beach party.
‘I just hope we can find her,’ Mr Bambridge said. ‘But it seems it’s going to be difficult. I’m not optimistic, unless a miracle happens.
‘I hope a miracle does happen, but I don’t think we’ll see her.’
Scores of police, local people, backpackers and government employees have searched the forest thoroughly, with no sign of Amelia. Her pink backpack containing her mobile phone, charger and bank cards was found on rocks, leading police to suggest she fell into the sea in the dark and drowned after perhaps striking her head.
But other backpackers have told police they believed Amelia had set off alone for a 40-minute walk along a jungle path to a hostel where she had been staying – and where her passport has since been unclaimed.
If Amelia, from Worthing, West
Sussex, did drown, her body would have been taken by sharks, police say.
Mr Bambridge told Sky News: ‘I don’t think she’s in the sea. I think she’s inland somewhere. I think someone’s taken her. I don’t think she’s had an accident – if she’d had an accident she would have been found.’
Amelia’s brother Harry added: ‘We have a 20-minute window where we can place her and then she just disappears.
‘For me something’s not right. We have had divers out searching the water. The water is shallow so the chances of her drowning are quite slim.’
The last known images of Amelia on the small 30-squaremile island are of her laughing with a group of friends near a campfire.
She had been in a happy mood when she phoned her younger sister Georgie, still at home in the UK.
During the phone call just a few hours before she disappeared on Wednesday, Amelia told Georgie she was having ‘the best time ever’ on her trip abroad and was ‘loving it’.
Georgie said: ‘She said it was doing so much for her confidence and she found so many people who were friendly. ‘She said, “Everyone is so cool here” and she couldn’t be happier.’
She added: ‘She’s like my role model – she never drank to excess, she was always in control. She spent all of my life looking out for me. I don’t know what’s happened.’
Mr Bambridge said he had spoken to Amelia about her planned trip across the world and emphasised ‘safety, safety, safety’. He added: ‘She was always reliable, switched on. But I think she still broke her own rules.
‘She had her safety rules and she let them slip and now she’s paid the ultimate price.’
‘I don’t think she’s in the sea’