Hartlepool dad of missing Katrice Lee fears official search may be wound down

November 28 marks 39 years since Katrice Lee, whose father is from Hartlepool, went missing from a military supermarket in Germany on her second birthday.

Now Richie Lee, 71, from the Stockton Road area of town, has a “gut feeling” that the case will be actively closed down before Christmas.

Mr Lee has revealed that he and other members of his family in the south of England have been unexpectedly invited to take part in a video meeting with the Royal Military Police, which is leading the inquiry, next month.

He added: “I was surprised when I was told about the meeting because it was so unexpected.

"We haven’t been told exactly what it is about and there’s still a chance it might not happen because of Covid.

"But my gut feeling because we haven’t heard anything for so long is that it will give them the opportunity to close the case down.”

The last known development in the case was more than a year ago when a former serviceman was arrested in Swindon.

But he was released without further action two days later after a lengthy RMP search of a house and its gardens.

Mr Lee, who has been highly critical of the RMP investigation into his daughter’s disappearance, insisted: “I owe it to Katrice not to give up whatever happens next month."

He was serving as a soldier in Paderborn, in what was then West Germany, when Katrice disappeared in 1981 while she was shopping with mum Sharon and older sister Natasha at a NAAFI store.

Mr Lee, a former sergeant major and retired postman said: “I have always said Katrice was picked up by a childless couple or sold for profit to one.

"I still believe she is alive and it could well be she is married with children of her own.

“We don’t want to take her away from all of that. We just want to know that she is still alive and I will move heaven and earth to find that out.”

The RMP did not respond to our request for comment.

Its Operation Bute investigation into Katrice’s disappearance can be contacted on 0800 616888.

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