‘I can’t hug my child anymore’: Mum of girl missing for 25 years still hopes she will return

The mum of a girl who has been missing for 25 years still hopes for her return and “just wants to bring her home”.

Speaking on true crime podcast The Missing this week, Deirdre Fenech spoke about her daughter Carmel Fenech, who was 16 years old when she vanished from Camberwell 25 years ago.

Since Carmel was last seen, not one shred of evidence has emerged to shed light on her case.

Ms Fenech said: “That child didn’t just disappear. There were other people involved, and how do they sleep at night? 

“Do they kiss their children goodnight when they put them to bed? I can’t do that with my child no more. I can’t hug my child anymore.”

On May 23, 1998, 16-year-old Carmel Fenech was seen at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court, in D’Eynsford Road, Camberwell Green. She was in the company of an older, unknown older man. This is the last known sighting of Carmel.

She did not return home that day and her mother reported her missing the following month.

Carmel was living in the Broadfield area of Crawley at the time of her disappearance, but police enquiries have focused on the Peckham and Brixton areas – where the family were originally from.

The Fenech family had lived on the North Peckham Estate, which has since been demolished, before moving to Crawley less than a year before Carmel disappeared. Carmel had many friends in Peckham, Brixton and Stockwell.

Ms Fenech asked if more would be done if they were from a “pretty, upper-class, middle-class family,” rather than a Peckham estate.

At the age of 14, while at a party, Carmel had been introduced to crack cocaine by a friend, and had been using it heavily ever since. 

On a typical day, she would bunk off school and meet her friends to find drugs before finding somewhere to sleep off the effects.

Around this time she had been caught shoplifting, and on a number of occasions she was reported to be with an older white man who drove a car.

Ms Fenech recalls Carmel experiencing domestic abuse at the hands of a believed boyfriend, who has never been identified.

Ms Fenech said: “She told her sister that she thought she might be pregnant and that she was going back to London that Saturday, May 23, to tell the man she believed to be the father.”

This would be the last conversation anyone in the family had with Carmel. 

Ms Fenech described the issues she has had with the police after her daughter’s disappearance.

She said: “Any information that comes in goes to West Sussex Police, then has to be passed down to the Met because it’s out of their jurisdiction.

“So if a sighting comes in and it’s sent to West Sussex, they can’t then drive up to London and investigate that, they have to then request that the Met do it.

“So by the time all this goes around, that sighting is long gone.”

On July 1, 2021, the independent charity, Crimestoppers, offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone linked to her disappearance.

Ms Fenech said: “It’s just like I say, if anyone, anyone has any information, even the smallest little piece of this puzzle to help solve this, you know? 

“Please. I beg you, please. At the end of the day, we just want to bring her home…to bring her back to us.

“Ease this family’s suffering.”

Detective Inspector Chris Rambour of the Sussex Police said: “We have completed a thorough enquiry into Carmel’s disappearance which has included – but is not limited to – working with the Metropolitan Police, reviewing further lines of enquiry, appealing to the public for information and keeping her family informed throughout.

“We have spoken with Carmel’s family again and they agreed that the last confirmed sighting of her was on 21 May 1998 at Camberwell Magistrates’ Court. There have not been any confirmed sightings since. We have assured them that we are doing all we can to help find the answers they desperately need.”

Pictured top: Carmel Fenech (Picture: The Missing Project)