West Midlands Police has announced Sheila has been discovered three days after it issued a social media appeal
Sheila has been found after 52 years(Image: -)
West Midlands Police has solved one its longest-running missing person cases after 52 years. It comes after the force issued an appeal for information three days ago on Saturday, December 29.
Sheila Fox went missing from Coventry, West Midlands, in 1972. West Midlands Police (WMP) issued a single black-and-white photo of Sheila from around the time of her disappearance.
Now, thankfully, Sheila has been found alive and well. Within hours of the appeal, members of the public contacted police with information which led officers to find her.
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Sheila was confirmed to be safe and well, living in another part of the country. The good news closed one of West Midlands Police’s longest-running missing person cases it has ever investigated.
Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw, from WMP’s cold case investigation team, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila.
“We are a small team of officers and I’d like to recognise the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public. Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them.”
Missing people can be from all ages and backgrounds, often with vastly differing reasons for going missing. The Cold Case team reviews and re-investigates the longest, most complex and protracted missing episodes which have remained unsolved.
With advances in forensics and technology, the team is able to pursue leads which weren’t necessarily available at the time these cases were first reported.