For one Hartlepool family, though, the suffering hits closer to home than most.

Richie Lee's daughter went missing nearly three decades ago. Three reported sightings recently have given him hope.

MARK THOMPSON spoke to him.

AFTER 27 years, a family's youngest is still missing.

"It doesn't get easier, you just learn to cope with it better," says father-of-two Richie Lee.

His second daughter Katrice vanished from a Naafi supermarket in Germany on her second birthday while Richie, 58, was serving as a sergeant major with the British Army.

"Parents know when your child goes out of sight your heart goes into your mouth because you naturally think the worst. After 27 years my heart is still in my mouth," said Richie from Belle Vue Way, Hartlepool.

From day one he believed his little girl was snatched after she ran down one of the store's isles but never reappeared.

"We always thought she was taken as a surrogate child. I think Katrice was selected, followed and taken to fulfil a childless couple."

Nearly three decades on the family carry the scars of their loss and in 1994 Richie and his wife Sharon divorced.

"It wasn't completely because of what had happened but it certainly played a part. We never blamed each other for what happened and supported each other through the hard times but it takes so much out of you," said Richie.

They both still visit Germany on the anniversary of their daughter's disappearance to look for answers and clues.

Katrice's case was highlighted recently on the BBC's Missing Live programme. A digital recreation of his daughter aged 29 was shown and three calls were made to the charity Missing People following the broadcast.

He says such sightings give the family hope. "We will never give up," added Richie.

His first daughter, Natasha, 33, has also revisited the sight in Germany. She was seven when she was at the family home helping prepare a party for Katrice who never turned up.

"She didn't really understand it all. She was very young and to her it was like losing a toy. Eventually it turns up somewhere," said Richie who now works as a postman.

"I remember one day she came back from school and started looking under pillows and all over the house. We asked her what she was doing and she said her friends at school had found Katrice so she was trying to find her as well."

But over time she realised what had happened and became her father's rock.

"She could have gone the other way and become introverted.

"But she is an extrovert and has come out fighting and saying 'I have a sister and I want her back before she is 30'. I couldn't be more proud of her."

Memories of 1981 came flooding back to the family recently when Madeleine McCann's disappearance in Portugal hit the headlines across the globe.

Over the weekend Madeleine's parents marked the anniversary of her disappearance on May 3, 2007.

Richie says the similarity with his daughter's case is staggering from the way the child vanished into thin air to the hate mail his family received.

He said: "They are almost identical apart from the media coverage. When Katrice disappeared there wasn't much attention on the case but the McCanns have done a great job of keeping it in the news.

"I know what they are going through but I hope they don't have to feel like me for 27 years."

He also believes the McCanns have done well to keep calm and focused with so many rumours and claims thrown at them.

"Just like the McCanns we were sent hate mail. It didn't bother me too much because I had lost a little girl, that's what hurt.

"But I remember one letter that said 'a child should always be held by the hand'. Kids run off and play, that's what they do. It's a sign of the times we live in that someone has to be blamed."

If you have information regarding Katrice or any other missing person ring Missing People on 0500 700 700.