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Appeal for gran Sally Middleton to come home
Search and rescue teams from three counties gathered to search the wooded areas of Bretton. Picture: Rowland Hobson/Peterborough ET
A WORRIED grandson has appealed for his missing gran to come home after police revealed they were investigating a potential sighting of her.
Sally Middleton (82), of Camelia Close, Werrington, Peterborough, has been missing since Monday morning (14 February) and family and police are becoming increasingly concerned for her well-being.
But the search was given a boost yesterday when police received a call at 9.30am from a worried member of the public who claimed to have seen a woman matching Mrs Middleton’s description conscious and in a hedgerow in Langley, Bretton.
By the time police arrived at the location, there was no one to be seen.
The potential sighting spurred on hopes that she will soon be found and Mrs Middleton’s grandson Gavin Ho (23) made an emotional appeal for her to return yesterday.
Gavin, who lives in Fletton, said: “It is a difficult time for us. My message to gran would be simply: just come home.”
The last confirmed sighting of Mrs Middleton came at 10.56am on Monday, when she was last seen on CCTV in the city centre walking towards the Queensgate bus station.
Cambridgeshire police have been joined by volunteers working around the clock in an attempt to find her.
Around 30 people from Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Bedfordshire have joined 50 Cambridgeshire police officers and PCSOs in scouring the city to find Mrs Middleton.
The search teams are basing themselves at the site of the old Silver Jubilee pub on Ellindon, Bretton, which is just 200 metres away from yesterday’s potential sighting.
Paul Arnhill, search controller from Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue, said: “We have been searching since Wednesday and will be out until it gets too dark to look for her.
“We have been focusing on the open areas like parks and woodlands, while the police have been conducting house-to-house inquiries and checking in gardens.
“We have got a very professional team and everyone here is trained to national standards. We are the equivalent of a mountain rescue team.”
The search and rescue team is being lead by DC Darryl Purdy, who briefed the volunteers at the Silver Jubilee pub at 2.30pm as the search went into its fourth day.
DC Purdy said: “We have been focusing the search on Werrington and Bretton because she lives in the area and the only places of interest known to her are here.
“The sighting of a woman in the Langley area of Bretton does match well with Mrs Middleton, although she was wearing a different coat to the one she went missing in.
He said: “She was said to be holding the same distinctive bag as when she went missing, and it is being treated as a significant sighting rather than as a confirmed sighting.”
The bag she was holding at the time of her disappearance was an iconic red and white print of tomato soup cans drawn by Andy Warhol.
Mrs Middleton is described as being of Oriental appearance, five foot tall and slim.
She has black, greying collar-length hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing light-coloured trousers, a light-coloured check coat over a dark top and black shoes.
Inspector Leigh Allman added: “We are following up several possible sightings and I would urge members of the public to continue to call us with any information.
“I would also ask anyone who thinks they have seen Mrs Middleton to stay with her until police arrive.”
- Anyone with any details about the whereabouts of Mrs Middleton should call police on 0345 456 456 4.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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