‘I just knew something was wrong about Karen’

WHEN Natalie Brown saw her close friend Karen Matthews laugh and joke during the frantic search for her missing nine-year-old daughter, she knew something was very wrong.

The mum-of-six was the first person in the close-knit community on the Moorside estate to suspect Matthews was involved in Shannon’s disappearance. Natalie said even her own husband had trouble believing her.

As shown in the new two-part film, Natalie is the only person among Matthews’ friends and neighbours to suggest she might have been involved – and said there were obvious tell-tale signs even before Shannon was found.

Natalie said: “Karen came to stay at my house and when the television cameras weren’t around, I realised it was as if she didn’t care – she was back to her normal, happy self.

“Something just wasn’t right. But when I raised my suspicions with anyone about the way Karen was acting, they would tell me I was being paranoid and reading into things.”

The notorious crime has since forced Natalie to uproot from her beloved Dewsbury, where she grew up.

Natalie said: “I decided to move on in Christmas 2009. I had lived on that estate since I was six and I wanted my kids to be brought up there, but everything changed.

“People started getting harassed and became ashamed to say they lived there. People would stop me in the street and say, ‘do you hide your kids under divan beds?’ It was absolutely devastating. The community totally changed as people moved away. No one wanted to live in the empty houses and vandalism and crime went up.”

Natalie said of Matthews: “I don’t think she will ever speak to me again.

“Her attitude towards me changed as soon as she realised I knew something wasn’t right. I don’t like what she did, I don’t agree with it and we will never be friends again.

“But I would love to just sit down with her and ask, ‘Why did you do it?’

“I honestly don’t know to this day why she did it. I don’t think she will ever tell the truth.”

Natalie, played by Sherlock star Sian Brooke in The Moorside, said she will never be able to forgive Matthews.

She remembered the moment Shannon was finally discovered: “When we were told a girl had been found, we were all so relieved. We were shouting and screaming. But Karen was just so blasé.” Matthews went into the kitchen and started tidying and emptying bins.

Natalie said: “I said, ‘What are you doing? They have just told you they might have found Shannon!’ She had to be told by the family liaison officer to leave to go see her at the station.

And regarding Matthews’ “confession” that she had asked Michael Donovan to look after Shannon while she split with partner Craig Meehan, Natalie said: “I think this was just a way of her getting out of it, by supposedly confessing. She told lie upon lie upon lie upon lie.”