50-YEAR MYSTERY OF MISSING GRANNY IZZY
BY SALLY HIND DETECTIVES searching for a missing mum who vanished more than 50 years ago have released a computergenerated image of what she would look like today.
Mum-of-three Isabella Skelton, from Glasgow, left her home in June 1969 and never came back.
Isabella – also known as Izzy and whose maiden name was McDowall – moved to Manchester in the 60s to raise her family before disappearing at the age of 35.
Greater Manchester Police have now released images of how she would look as an 86-year-old, as her daughter makes a heartbreaking appeal for help in finding her.
Linda Chapman said she and her brothers Stephen and Richard have never given up looking for answers and believe their mum could have returned to Scotland, where the family had links to Glasgow’s Castlemilk and Drumchapel areas as well as Barrhead, Hamilton and Paisley.
She said: “I just want to know, one way or another.
“The police can’t find any hospital records for her and there’s no record of her claiming a state pension or anything. There must be a reason she’s not doing that.
“I’m piecing a lot of things together now.”
Born in January 1934, it is believed Isabella was a pupil at Anderson Cross school, where she had a friend called Anna Owen.
She later did some work in a florist’s and also worked for the James Howden engineering company in Glasgow.
Isabella married Lewis Skelton in July 1952 and they had children – Linda, Richard and Stephen.
After moving to Manchester, she first lived in Salford then moved to Crumpsall. She worked at the courier company
Atlas Express, based in Salford, and was employed at Gallagher Cigarettes and Ball Bearings Services when she disappeared.
Linda said she just wants to know her mum is safe.
She said previously: “When she went, it was awful. And I don’t blame her. People say, ‘How can she walk out on three children?’ But we don’t know what was going on.
“I just hope she is well and she’s found happiness.”
Detective Inspector Claire Moss, of Greater Manchester Police’s City of Manchester Division, is urging anyone with information about Isabella to come forward.
She said: “We believe she is still alive. We owe it to Isabella’s family not to stop looking for her.”