Family join desperate hunt for gap-year backpacker missing after beach party
POLICE divers and drones scoured a paradise island in South-East Asia yesterday in the search for a British backpacker missing for four days.
Amelia Bambridge was last seen at a beach party late on Wednesday night on the Cambodian island of Koh Rong.
Last night footage of the 21-yearold gap-year student taken hours before she vanished was released by her family in a desperate attempt to help find her. A video shows Amelia around a fire with pals before she is thought to have left in the early hours of Thursday.
Her purple bag, containing belongings including her mobile phone, bank cards and a watch, are the only items to have been found so far.
The alarm was raised when Amelia failed to arrive back at the hostel where she had been staying.
Islanders and other backpackers joined police in combing the area yesterday in a fruitless hunt for the gap-year student as the search continued for a fourth full day.
Her mother Linda Schultes, 52, has
‘We need to be strong’
travelled to Cambodia from Worthing, West Sussex, and was yesterday briefed by police on the search.
She is praying that Amelia, last seen wearing a tropical print shirt, has simply become lost in thick jungle after leaving a night-time beach party for the 40-minute walk to her hostel. ‘This is very out of character,’ said Miss Schultes. ‘She is normally so organised. I don’t know what to think. The police have confirmed she is missing – apparently the embassy is closed until Monday.
‘There doesn’t seem to be any urgency. Her friend is still there as they were due to leave the island on Saturday, but she hasn’t left because Amelia is missing.’
Amelia, who saved for the trip for two years by working at Lloyds bank, set off on September 27 and flew first to Vietnam. Koh Rong, a small island some 130 miles from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, is popular with backpackers for its crystal waters and sandy coves. Amelia was staying at the Nest Beach Club hostel in the south of the island.
The manager called the backpacker’s mother when she failed to check out. Her passport is still there.
Searchers have questioned why the young woman would have walked away from the beach in the early hours leaving her small Urban Outfitters pack, which was found yesterday on coastal rocks containing her phone and charger, headphones, credit cards, watch, lighter, pen and keyring.
Amelia’s 19-year-old sister Georgie, who released the video of her sibling at the party, said: ‘We need to be strong and we are trying to be really positive, but it’s the unknown. I’m just in shock – she’s never done anything like this before… she normally messages us every now and then, every time she got wi-fi.’
She told the BBC: ‘She’s my best friend. We’re like twins, she’s literally my other half.’
Amelia’s brother Harry has also flown to Cambodia to help, calling on his Facebook friends to pray for his sister to turn up safe and well. In a post before he took a flight from the US to Asia, he wrote: ‘I’ve asked whoever might be up there, to look after her for just another 20 hours and her big brother will be there as soon as I can be.
‘Thanks for everyone who’s showed their support, especially to my family back home.’
Ryan Harris, 18, a friend who Amelia met in Phnom Penh, told the BBC the gap-year student had always stuck with a group of other travellers they had joined up with.
He has since travelled by bus for 12 hours to Siem Reap, where he had been expecting Amelia to arrive.
‘Even if you go your separate ways after a few drinks you see people again ten or 20 minutes’ later,’ he said. The Foreign Office is providing support to Amelia’s family and officials are remaining in close contact with Cambodian police.
Officers from Sussex Police are said to have visited the family’s home over the weekend to offer support.