Riverbank search for girl who went missing in 1981

ROYAL Military Police are to excavate a river bank in Germany in the hope of a breakthrough in the unsolved case of a British child who disappeared in 1981.

Katrice Lee went missing on her second birthday while at a busy Naafi shop near Paderborn, where her father was serving in the Army. Her family believes she was abducted.

Natasha Lee, Katrice’s 43-year-old sister, said yesterday: “This search feels like such a double-edged sword for us. I don’t want them to find her there, but if they did that would bring my family closure.” Forensics experts will conduct a search of the banks of the Alme, where investigators believe vital evidence may have been missed.

A witness saw a man holding a child who resembled Katrice get into a green saloon car on the day she vanished 36 years ago. A similar car was seen the next day on a bridge over the Alme.

Katrice went missing in the store, which was unusually busy because it was the final payday before Christmas. “She was gone in a matter of seconds,” Ms Lee told reporters yesterday.