EP09 The Search for Georgina - The Incident Room

On the 2nd anniversary of Georgina Gharsallah’s disappearance, the family set-up their own community incident room – a focal point for people to visit and share information. Donal is joined by Digital Forensic Expert, Andy Crocker who reviews and completes his own CCTV enquiries before the day culminates with an emotional town centre vigil.

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**If you have any information regarding the Georgina Gharsallah case, please contact Sussex Police quoting ‘Operation Pavo’ or via Crimestoppers**

Transcript

00:00--> 00:09

Donal:             Okay, good, good, okay, oh here comes the….

00:10 --> 00:26

Donal:              So, effectively what we have here, we have an incident room. The whole community has come together to support, uh… Andrea and the family in the search for Georgina the shop owners here have given a shop here for as long as we want to create a community incident room to galvanize the community in this desperate search for Georgina.

00:26 --> 00:36

Donal:             On the 7th of March 2018 Georgina Gharsallah left her home in Worthing and vanished without trace.

00:37 --> 00:49

Clive Driscoll: Every single case I’ve ever had where I’ve had success historically, is there’s been a parent or someone who hasn’t allowed the police to forget it, hasn’t allowed the public to forget it.

00:49 --> 00:53

Petra:              We stop at absolutely nothing we’re not scared; we are not scared.

0:54 --> 00:55

Donal:              A mother’s journey to uncover the truth.

00:55 --> 00:59

Andrea:           I want answers I want to find out what happened, and I won’t stop until I do.

01:00 --> 01:05

Donal:              Murdered. Missing. Unsolved. The search for Georgina.

Episode Nine – The Incident Room

00:10 --> 02:04

Well, this is it, this is the incident room, this is the culmination of about six months work, and this we hope, today, on the anniversary, the two-year anniversary of the disappearance of Georgina Gharsallah that this will be a magnet for witnesses, for supporters and the friends and family of Georgina and all those who want to find out what happened to her. See already people are walking by and having a look. I know no other missing persons case where the family have created effectively their own community police station. The answers to this investigation are out there, and so the first thing is that we got to keep the investigation alive in the public mind. The second thing is we got to bring expertise into it that the police haven't yet utilized, and this is what this incident room is about. It's about pleading with people to consider, if this was you in your circumstances, what would you do? So, we're pleading for answers and we're pleading for some hope and help, that we can find out what happened to Georgina.

02:04 --> 02:31

It's so surreal, because we had this idea, we put it down on paper and it's hard to imagine that it's actually going to come into fruition, you know. Wow. well, I think it's interesting and it gets, it gets the investigators together, the witnesses, the people, your supporters, family, you know, together. It's only just a meeting place to have coffee, but also, I think it will kickstart people saying if we're going to extraordinary, unusual lengths to find Georgina and everybody else will be a little more empowered… 

02:31 --> 02:32

Petra:              Yes.

02:32 --> 02:44

…. enthused to do it because somebody out there knows something. Tell me this, how do you think the police will feel about you in many ways, stealing their thunder?

02:44 --> 02:46

Andrea:           They definitely won't be happy. 

02:47 --> 02:48

Donal:             And why is that?

02:48 --> 02:54

Andrea:           We’re doing their job, which we've been doing, we feel we've been doing for a long time. 

02:54 --> 02:55

Donal:             Yeah, but I actually think also, it will galvanize them to do better because you know, as professionals, if you’re professionally embarrassed and there are errors and then you're going to want to do better. 

02:54 --> 02:55

Andrea:           Yeah.

02:56 --> 03:17

Donal:

Just let me know guys if this is looking a little off, off, skew, is that straight, is that straight, Andrea? 

03:18 --> 03:19

Andrea:           Yep!

03:19 --> 03:22

Donal:             Is it? You're just saying that are you? 

03:23 --> 03:23

Andrea:           No….

03:23 --> 03:46

Donal:             Oh… okay. How strange is it to see her looking back at you all across town? I mean you created this, you put your own money into this, Andrea. Your kind of detached from it on one level because it's a process of running a campaign. At the same time is…. you're a mum, occasionally I see the mum and the tears come out, and at the same time, you've got to be like, you're running a presidential campaign here, you’ve got a machine going….

03:47 --> 04:27

Andrea:           It is overwhelming, but it’s like, it’s like it drives me, cause I think this is what we're doing, we’re going to find answers. So, it's like that drive um… to carry on to find out the answers. I do…. I mean, like I always say people sometimes say, um… oh if I was you, I'd be falling to pieces … I do fall to pieces sometimes, you know. Um… but I think I've built up this strength that… um… it's, it's more about that we find Georgina. We need to get answers for her, so its….

04:28 --> 04:46

Donal:              Um… but what's extraordinary is that they have, um…. is that you can't move for the offer of cups of tea or chairs to the whole community who has come out. And even in the kind of a case where there is a slightly fractious relationship between the police and the family they've still come out because they're happy to, they recognize your pain...

04:47 --> 05:10

DONAL: As Andrea and her team continue to plaster the walls and windows of this town centre shop front with posters and photographs of Georgina, our digital forensic expert, Andy Crocker arrives. He’s an extremely experienced ex police and serious and organised Crime Agency detective, Andy hopes to help us with the critical issue of CCTV evidence in this case…

05:11 --> 05:15

Donal:             What do you think? Is it what you thought we were going to construct or put together?

05:16 --> 05:42

Andy Crocker: Yeah. There's lots of imagery there, you know, there's lots of photographs of Georgina there. This has to jog people's memories. People are coming past constantly loads of pictures. People know that she's missing. People seeing these pictures, it could just… it could just turn up that one person says, I saw her that day. I didn't want to tell the police because for whatever reason, but I saw her that day and this is… and could be the crucial bit of evidence that leads us to finding out what happened to Georgina on that day.

05:42 --> 05:49

Donal:              Now, I've never seen a community incident room. I've never seen a family go to these measures. I've never seen a campaign so proactive.

05:42 --> 06:17

Andy Crocker: No, I've never seen the community coming together like this. This is unprecedented you know, to be perfectly honest with you the incidents that I worked on, the police were very proactive. You know, I'm not saying that because I was working on it, because I wasn't the SIO on some of them, you know, we had great SIOs, and really good staff and very dedicated staff and they did their best. And it didn't need the community to put something together, but this one obviously needs it.

06:18 --> 06:20

Donal:              You worked on Millie Dowler, which for years went unsolved. 

06:21 --> 06:21

Andy Crocker: It did…

06:22 --> 06:39

Donal:             And there were big problems for Millie Dowler, and there were big successes in the end. So, I mean Millie Dowler, it's not a blueprint, but it is a recognition that you know, there were huge police failings early on, there were problems with the press. There were problems with this, but nonetheless, the family kept fighting and answers were found. 

06:40 --> 07:31

Andy Crocker: I've known Donal for many years, and he told me about Georgina being missing. How she'd been missing for quite some time. And how there were lots of things within the investigation about her missing that hadn't been finished and how there's still a chance to we’d be able to find her. And because of my expertise in cyber security and cyber matters and ex police work, I looked at and discussed the case and I came up with some ideas and they asked me, and of course, with someone missing like this of course, you're gonna want to help. It's like, you know, it's a serious case, it's somebody… somebodies’ family, it's somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, brother. You really want to always help with something like that, so, I just thought I'd lend a hand where I could. There are a couple of things with this. First of all, she was in a town centre and within town centres.

07:32 --> 08:30

And we were probably one of the most videoed countries in the world. So, there must be loads and it must've been loads and loads of CCTV. And I didn't think that there'd been enough um…. effort put into gathering that CCTV evidence. Now remember we're two years down the line, and a lot of people are saying, well there'll be nothing left. Well, that's not quite true in the day of digital cameras, etcetera, and hard drives being stored. Sometimes even when it's over written, you can still gather fragments from those hard drives. So that's what I sort of suggested we try and do. Let's look at the CCTV. We need to identify her movements around the town. Who did she meet? Who did she, you know, walked off with her, there's been sightings of her in different locations, some confirmed. Some on CCTV. For instance, there's one girl she’s seen within another female. That female's really, really important to try and find. She's on part of the CCTV. Did they go off together?

08:31 --> 09:23

You might find that from CCTV, we might even find it if we find more CCTV that might jog other people's memories when we show it out. So, it would be a great thing to get that CCTV imagery and also to try and trace that girl as well. That will be a really good thing to… to… to help with the inquiry. I was a detective for a long time, within the…within the police, you know, I was part of the national crime squad, and CCTV is a really important bit of evidence if you can get it. Now because of my experience, I’m a cyber guy, really, that's what I specialize in. I do lots of cyber security and cyber training, and I know how hard drives work, and I know how data is stored on those hard drives. And lay people just think that once you've overwritten something. For instance, if you've got a hard drive and you delete something off your computer.

09:24 --> 10:05

Right, I've deleted, I don't need this document anymore, I'm going to delete it, you don't actually delete it. What you do is you tell the computer that it's no longer there on that hard drive. The fragments are still there. The evidence is still there. The document’s still there. It's just that the hard drive now knows that it can, it can write to that area of the hard drive, that it's no longer an area that's being taken up, but it is still taken up. There's still evidence there the electricity that holds it in place is still there. So, the fragments of that image are still there. Even when it's overwritten, it's still there. So, if we then use our expertise to gather the evidence, we can use forensic people to, to look at those hard drives and look underneath the written files and see what's below it.

10:06 --> 10:53

And we may be able to get some really good CCTV imagery from it. She walked a long route through the town centre. There must be hundreds of cameras along that route, even when she's walking in um…a residential area, which we know she did, there might be people in that area that have CCTV, outside their house because of vandalism, whatever. If they've got a phone system that's got a nice, big hard drive, some of them are one terabyte hard drives, two terabyte hard drives, and use a very small amount. It just, overwrites as it goes on, it might not have even been overwritten yet. So, there's a chance we could find that. So, if anybody gets to see this and they've got CCTV at their home and live in the Worthing area in the relevant parts that we will be putting out, contact us, and we'd have a look at the CCTV and see if there's any imagery on there. CCTV will be just a part of the puzzle.

10:53 --> 11:50

But it's an important part, you know if you can find pictures, pictures can paint a thousand words, if you can find pictures of… of… of Georgina walking through the streets with someone, and you can identify them, we then know a little bit more about her movements on that day. We might be able to piece together where she went, who she saw, etcetera. They might know the key to discover where she is now. Worthing isn't, you know metropolis, it's not a huge city, it's a small town, really and a very friendly town, a nice town, people know each other. Someone knows who that person is who was with Georgina on her last day that we know about. 90% of people said, oh… I… I… I don't remember anything from that day, but our memories work slightly more complicated than that, and it just takes something, like an image it's like doing a reconstruction. Reconstructions are so important because somebody sees something happening.

10:53 --> 12:47

Walk through the city centre Since I've seen this before, it's like a deja vu experience, and that jogs that memory. And that's what brings that memory back to the forefront. And if we find these images and we're able to show them out to the… the… the… the town to the people, that could easily jog people's memories about being there on that day about seeing Georgina and seeing this other person. So, it's really, really, good part of an investigation to get that out there and use the people. I am a big believer in, you know, uh… using mass of people to gather information. And I've always been amazed about how easy it is to solve a problem now, in the days of the internet. You know, put a problem out there, you'll get a million answers and lots of them will be the right answer. And when you put an image out there, you'll get lots of replies, but some of those replies will be the ones that you really, really need.

12:48 --> 13:38

And we don't mind getting ones that I think I might've seen her. We don't mind getting that. We… we will… we will then drill down and get other evidence to prove you did see her on that day, and that's the important thing. Do you know anything about it? Come forward and let us know we’ll be able to use that information. Um… obviously with everything you give us will be taken in confidence. We are human beings. We don't, I don't like to see anybody, you know, being treated badly. And I think that the family of Georgina, bless them, they've put up with so much recently, they've been through so much over the past two years. I don't think they've had the support that they need, and if I can help in any way to, for people like that, I'm more than happy to do so. We're going to be putting out a questionnaire out to local businesses in the Worthing area, especially in the town centre area where we believe that Georgina was on the 7th of March.

13:39 --> 13:48

And, um… and it explains in it, you know, about Georgina disappearing on that day and how people might be able to help with their CCTV images. 

13:49 --> 14:02

Donal:

So, we're going to make our way down to that key part towards the Guildborne centre, where she was partially seen. You can see here the CCTV, there's no shortage… no shortage of it.

14:03 --> 14:13

Andy Crocker: I'm looking to see where I can see CCTV cameras, because any cameras that we can see, can see the street. And if you can see the street and it's filming the street, then they're the ones we're interested in.

14:14 --> 14:25

Donal:              Okay, well, we're coming close up to where she was last seen. So, let's start from where she was last seen and then we'll work our way back. So, she was seen last seen up here.

14:26 --> 14:29

Andy Crocker: And this is where she was seen on the municipal town.

14:29 --> 14:32

Donal:             It's the four o'clock sighting. 

14:33 --> 14:34

Andy Crocker: It’s the four o’clock sighting is it… 

14:34 --> 14:56

Donal:             The route she took, caught on this camera over here, the municipal camera over here. She just came around that corner, just, just up to about the subway sign across the road. And it's the, we think she was heading towards the Guildborne centre. Now, she could have gone straight up, she could have gone into the centre, or she could have taken this route down here. 

14:57 --> 14:59

Andy Crocker:             Do we know if Samuels is checked? It's a jewellery shop, to me, that would be…

15:01 --> 15:05

Donal:              Well, I know they went in there and the police went in there and we know that the family did, but let's go in there again, because this is new information.

15:06 --> 15:10

Andy Crocker: Okay. Let's go try.

15:09 --> 15:08

Donal:              So, Andy, just explain the significance of that.

15:11 --> 15:38

Andy Crocker: This shop now has got a camera that comes out straight through the door. It's a glass door, um… and it could have taken pictures of her in the street. It's a digital system, so the hard drive should still be available. We know that she walked up here and she's with that second female. This female that we're desperately trying to identify. Now, if they've got a side shot of that girl just walking past. At the moment, the only shot we've got is virtually of her back.

15:11 --> 15:38

Donal:              But it doubles, the possibilities, maybe multiplies the possibilities.

15:39 --> 15:42

Andy Crocker: This could be a real breakthrough.

15:43 --> 15:44

Donal:              And they said, they'd contact head office.

15:43 --> 16:12

Andy Crocker: I don’t they had if they’d had contacted Head office for us. And you know, if we just put a bit… obviously they're not allowed just to give away, you know, their hard drives, etcetera. They were very helpful, look the manager said or the manageress said we'll… we'll go to head office and get permission to give you the hard drives. You never know that one crucial bit of information could be on that hard drive. We might be able to identify the person with her, you never know. This is so important. It could be a real breakthrough if there's, if there's evidence there.

16:13 --> 16:16

Donal:              Well, let's hit some more shops.

16:17 --> 16:21

Donal:             That’s really interesting, Andy.

16:17 --> 16:34

Andy Crocker: It's two right next to each other, they've got two CCTV cameras showing out through the window, and you know videoing out through the windows. So, there's a chance that if they caught somebody going past, images of her and the other person going past...

16:35 --> 16:40

Donal:              And they have the same system? It’s digital?

16:41 --> 16:44

Andy Crocker: Its digital, so there's a good you know... there's a chance there could be stuff on it.

16:45 --> 17:07

Donal:              We're not reaching too far, these are stores which are right beside the municipal camera, which caught perhaps the last image of Georgina alive. And they're saying, no, their systems have not been deep cleaned, deep reviewed by the police. So, there's still a chance there's still a possibility. So, if we take your thesis, you know, there's a chance, with a 10, 15, 5% chance who knows, but there's a possibility.

16:45 --> 17:07

Andy Crocker: It's better than nothing, small chance is better than nothing.

17:08 --> 17:19

Donal:              And the key thing about this, we either confirm that CCTV sighting and it exclude or confirm the identity of the person who's with Georgina at the time.

17:20 --> 17:40

Andy Crocker: Right, that's a crucial point in this, is because either of these two cameras could catch that…. that person hasn't been identified, who was with Georgina walking past. The only image we've got so far is from that camera and it's from the back of her. So, she must be, honest…. if she's on either of these cameras, it must be a side view of her, there's a good chance she could be identified from it.

17:41 --> 17:48

Donal:              How incredible is it there are only eight seconds in the centre of a pretty substantial town, eight seconds of Georgina on the day she disappeared.

17:41 --> 17:54

Andy Crocker: Well, I don't know how many cameras are in… on the municipal system, but there is going to be quite a few.

17:55 --> 17:57

Donal:              Well, it says smile, you're on CCTV, well, apparently not enough.

17:57 --> 18:21

Andy Crocker: Making Sussex safer. Well, if she was caught on that camera, she must've been caught on others. So, why have we not seen that footage? Why is that not been discovered? She didn't just materialize here and then walk across there. She's walked from somewhere through the town centre. Passed municipal cameras to get to this point. Why have we not got other images of her?

18:22--> 18:33

Donal:             If you've got somebody walking around the centre of a major English, seaside town, with all these shops that is a very poor investigative trawl. Particularly in a major missing person slash murder enquiry.

18:34 --> 18:50

Andy Crocker: I don't know. Anyway, I've not looked at what they've done. I've not reviewed any of the work that they've done, but it seems to me that it would be virtually impossible for her not to have been picked up on one of the other, several of the other cameras within this town centre.

18:51 --> 19:00

DONAL:           With Andy’s enquiries already beginning to garner results, I return to the incident room where Andrea shows me a photograph of a mobile poster van.

19:01 --> 19:19

Donal:              So, this is outside the Guildborne centre. This is where she was last seen, that's great, and where the vigil is going to be tonight? Well, it's a pity they didn't do this a year ago or six months after she disappeared, but they're doing it now, which is great. And they're doing it where she was last spotted, that's significant, but why do you think they're doing it now? You know, the answer.

19:20 --> 20:11

Andrea:           We've done so much, um… so, and created so much awareness publicity, and I've done so many emails to them questioning them. Um…we've done the… the… the letter to the, um… Home Office for, to, for the investigation to be looked into thoroughly. Um… what else have we done? We've done quite a lot, so I think they feel quite pressured about it because they know that we're not going to stop. I feel disappointed, I feel disheartened. I know you've got all the, the, the climate thing with the… and the funding and everything like that, but that doesn't help me, does it with a missing daughter that's we don't... they have actually said they believe she's been murdered. Um… do they just want me to accept that? and think, oh… okay. That's it, I'll accept that and forget about it and go on with my life.

20:12 --> 20:59

Cause I'm not, um… I want answers. I want to find out what happened, or I want to find out is she alive or where she is, and I won't stop until I do. And… and I believe that they should be with me, or they should be doing it for me, and I shouldn't have had to have done all this, what I've done or what we've done. Um. really, they should have been doing it because it is their job. I'm a mum and I'll do that, I'll do it, because that's what I would hope that any mother would do. Um… and I will, I mean, she's, my daughter, I had her and no, this is most important for me is to carry on until however long it takes. Hopefully it's not, but I will do…. for my daughter.

21:00 --> 21:02

Donal:              Where are we off to?

21:03 --> 21:20

Andrea:           We're off to we're walking up through the town, um, to go to Teville, to Teville Gate the, where the demolition site is because, um… Horace the secret street artist who does art, um…. sort of graffiti art.

21:21 --> 21:22

Donal:              A kind of Banksy type figure?

21:23 --> 21:44

Andrea:           Yeah, he does street art, but he usually does it in secret, so, nobody actually knows um…. who he is. So, um….so he's done it overnight and he's done one of Georgina. Um… and its quite good cause it's… it's done in different phases of her and then it fades out, it's quite, um... that's on Teville, on the Teville gate boarding.

21:45 --> 21:47

Donal:              And that's very close to where one suspected sighting was. 

21:48 --> 21:49

Andrea:           That’s it yeah…

21:49 --> 22:00

Donal:             And there was concern she was buried there, so we're on there. And then of course, we've got a couple of other places we've got to go to the square where there's a big Crimestoppers van, there's a mobile police unit and then the vigil later, and then…

22:01 --> 22:21

Andrea:           That's not far from where the police have set up their, um, their mobile unit and the Crimestoppers. So, and this, of course, this is where the last sighting, um… was of Georgina, um… at four o'clock that day as well. So, and it's, so… it's all in this area, just within a few seconds of each other, really. So…

22:22 --> 22:27

Donal:              Well, it’s a busy day, but it's an important day.

22:28 --> 22:31

Andrea:           It is...but of course…

22:31 --> 22:40

Donal:              We're caught between kind of excitement because the campaign is working, uh… and we have to temper that. We’re getting the work done, we're doing something but, you know, you're still a trauma… traumatized mum.

22:41 --> 22:41

Andrea:           Yeah.

22:41 --> 22:42

Donal:              And she's still not here.

22:41 --> 23:04

Andrea:           That's right, that's right. Yeah. It is overwhelming all that's going on, and…but behind it is the sadness and the stress as well. Um… so I can see the, the Crimestoppers, uh… TV there and, uh… I do find it quite sad when I see especially a big picture, you know, when we've seen, um,

23:05 --> 23:07

Donal:             Now we can see that's Georgina.

22:08 --> 23:08

Andrea:           Yeah.

23:09 --> 23:17

Donal:              And that's your missing daughter and you see her there, she is writ large on a big banner on a mobile, uh… poster.

23:19 --> 23:43

Andrea:           Yeah. Um, then it sort of hits me. Cause I think I'm looking at my daughter on a, on a, on a massive banner there and she's missing, and nobody knows where she is and you know, how, how is this happening? It's it's…I question it, you know, how was it two years? And nobody knows anything. Um… you know, why's my daughter on a big poster like that?

23:44 --> 23:45

Donal:              Must feel surreal. Like someone else's story?

23:46 --> 24:58

Andrea:           It is… it is surreal, it makes me feel really sad. Like it's really distressing thinking that, you know, it's quite a big thing isn't it, like a van in town with a massive TV camera with a picture of your daughter on there. Because I haven't seen my daughter for two years, I don't know what's happened to her. Um… you know, I don't know if she's alive if she's not, what happened to her? Um… I don't know any of that, and there she is on a picture just asking the public if they know anything about her, I don't know anything about her, but somebody knows something. Um…. so it is heart-breaking really to see your, your daughter on, on the… you tend to, you tend to forget all the good things because all the time it's this like sadness and, you know, um… it's um… you know, only sort of momentarily that you remember the good things, but then it becomes really, really distressing because she's not here and you don't know what's happened to her. So, it makes it, you know, a hundred times worse thinking about all that good time we had, um… because you don't really want to think about that.

24:59 --> 25:45

DONAL:           Before we walk on to take a look at the mural, I come across the Senior Investigating Officer in charge of Georgina’s case in the town centre. To their credit, the police are all out in force today. A small team of officers engaging with the community and handing out leaflets, about Georgina’s disappearance, seeking information for all the help they can get. I put my concerns to the Senior Officer, and we have a frank exchange of views – I hope it helps in some way to start rebuilding the relationship between the family and the police – but I won’t hold my breath quite yet. There are too many questions about the investigation which have so far gone unanswered. We continue onto Teville Gate – an area of development that sits on the main route into Worthing, and which has been the focal point throughout Andrea’s campaign…

25:46 --> 25:50

Donal:              Oh, my goodness. Wow! She's fading away.

25:51 --> 26:20

Andrea:           Yeah. The first one's a very distinct stencilled picture of Georgina. Um…  when you look at it, you can tell its Georgina, um… features, and then the, the consecutive four, um… fade out a little bit more in each picture. So, the last one is almost ghost like really, and then there is the writing, where is she, which is quite significant, because where is she?

26:21 --> 26:29

Donal:              He's kind of seemingly pleading…. She’s missing. Although we can't let our memories of Georgina fade, we've got to keep her in the public light and he's fighting hard for that.

26:30 --> 26:31

Andrea:           Yeah, he's done it very well.

26:32 --> 26:43

 (Cars honks in background)

Donal:              That's a message of support. Normally that's a matter of message of abuse to me because you're here, I know it's a message of support,

26:32 --> 26:58

Andrea:           Even though it's sad and that I do it does make me feel that there are people out there that are supporting us and do want to help in any way. And this is a great way of doing it and keeping Georgina's name out there, because this is something that will be talked about.

26:59 --> 27:15

Donal:              Now, when you’re sending out emails at two o'clock in the morning, as I know you do, and you're phoning people, fighting the campaign, to know that an artist has taken his or her time in the middle of the night to do this, to dash this out, in secret covertly for you and the campaign, it must give you a little uplift.

27:16 --> 27:26

Andrea:           Yeah, it does, it is uplifting. It is to think that somebody is willing to come and do this and possibly get into trouble for it. For this, because it is graffiti, isn't it?

27:27 --> 27:30

Donal:              I don't think anybody is going to be prosecuting this crime, do you?

27:31 --> 27:57

Andrea:           I mean, Georgina's uh… face um…painted across this large wall, um… does help it helps tremendously get her picture, get her story out, um…to passers-by, to people coming in and out of Worthing, and like… it’s something that can't be missed. Um… and I think most people, when they see it, they will, they will know it's Georgina.

27:58 --> 28:25

DONAL:           And Georgina is truly everywhere you look today. We can only hope that this intense media coverage and community engagement has the desired effect. As the day comes to an end, friends and family start to gather outside the Guildborne Centre to remember Georgina.

We were here 5 months ago in the same spot to mark what would have been Georgina’s birthday. I want to know how important these gatherings are for Andrea and her family and what they represent…

28:26 --> 29:13

Andrea:           The vigil is, um… to… it represents the two-year anniversary of Georgina being missing, um… and for, to create awareness, um…. and for supporters and friends, family, and anybody in the public to come along and just show, you know, show that they care, light a candle. Um… we've got a few special things that we've created for tonight as well, just for Georgina. Um… so it's nice and it shows us as well that we have a lot of support, and Georgina has people that care about her as well. So, it does mean a lot to us as well, when people show up or they make the effort to come along, um, it's a nice gesture.

29:14 --> 29:17

Donal:              What makes you so interested? Why have you turned up for the vigil tonight?

29:18 --> 29:43

Speaker 1:       Um… well, because I'm a mother and one mother to another and a mother who’s missing as well. Um… it, it just strikes fear into me, if it was one of my children, I've got two children. Um… I don't know how they're coping the family. And I just wanted to show my support today. Um… you know, just to show that people do care and, you know, hopefully get some news, you know?

29:44 --> 29:52

Donal:              Well, I've been really struck by how the community in Worthing, you know, helping the family and it's a difficult time and it's all the more difficult because it's still happening, it's two years on.

29:53 --> 30:12

Speaker 1:       Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's um… it's, it's just awful that they're no further forward really, I really, really… feel for the family, it's…. it must be awful. I just can't imagine what they're going through really. It's just… it's just dreadful. I don't know how they cope from day to day. I really don't.

30:13 --> 30:19

Donal:              Well, the key thing is people like you turning up and supporting them. It'll be starting in a couple of minutes about ten minutes.

30:20 --> 30:35

Speaker 2:       I know Andrea. Um… well, we've come to know each other through work, but you know, I just wanted to come along tonight with support because this is just so important that it's kept in the public domain. You know that she does not get forgotten about.

30:36 --> 30:44

Speaker 3:       She'd do anything for you, you know, if you wanted to do something or if you were in trouble anything, George would be there, phone George, she was always there.

30:45 --> 30:51

Donal:              She was just, she was a nice girl. she was cheeky and outgoing and she's always up for a bit of devilment I hear.

30:52 --> 31:09

Speaker 4:       Oh yes, if we ever had a master plan, she’d be right there beside you even if it wasn't the best plan, because we were all like that to be fair, we probably didn't all…uh… all help each other. But no, we were the best of friends through from when she first started, we were obviously friends first and then she came along 

31:10 --> 31:15

Speaker 5:       Yeah, until we were about 20 – 21 probably

31:16 --> 31:36

Speaker 5:       Yeah, and then we just, sort of slowly fell apart really. Um… but yeah, I still would have been there for her, you know, any of us or this or that, you know.

 It’s one of those things, you know, you don't see anyone for ages and then you see someone and it's just exactly the same. Like nothing, nothing’s changed at all, in we’d still talk about the same things still have a laugh, she was always making herself CDs obviously.

31:36 --> 31:49

Speaker 6:       Yeah, I think she’s still got them as well…

Speaker 5:       She was very into music, wasn’t she?

Speaker 6:       Yeah, she was all the time downloading from LimeWire onto CD. 

 Speaker 6:      She’d be saying - I got them…I got them…

Speakers together:  She would be there with her cd Walkman… yeah like …(laughter)

31:49 --> 32:29

Speaker 7:       It is heart-breaking actually, for a child going missing, it’s been two years now and we haven't got the answers yet and the police are not doing anything, and it's not just for Andrea it's for every mother in this town. I'm here because she's our girl, she's our town girl, she's our local girl, I mean, it's not um…. just Andrea’s girl, she's a Worthing girl, you know, so you’ve got to be here. I can't stay at home, and it's two years and you know, I'd said to my girls come with me but unfortunately, they’re not well, otherwise they would have been here with me as well supporting, and she is our girl, and we need to find an answer.

32:30 --> 33:24

Ebony:

Me and my stepdad have written a song in less than 24 hours to, um... perform, you know, and show our support. And also, it's kind of written from the point of view of Andrea and her daughters and also the community, you know, cause we all really care, and I think it's necessary to do the vigils and… and especially the incident room. I mean, I've heard, it's not really been done before, which shows how dedicated everyone involved is. And it's about reaching out to those people, they might just see it in the newspaper and just flip past it, you know? Well, we're like, well, we're here and we're doing something. So, kind of giving that question to the public. Why aren't you? because this could happen to you. I think it's very important, and especially on the two-year anniversary to mark it and say, well, we still haven't forgotten you and we're not going to forget you

33:25 --> 34:10

“…. I wish we never had to miss you for a second…. your footsteps on the path have led you…. we miss you…. we miss you…. we miss you….”

34:11 --> 34:53

Donal:              I just want to on behalf of, I’m with, Andrea here and she's going to need everybody here and it's a very traumatic, and I know this is a very poignant song and Andrea has been through the mill today, is as tough day as you can imagine, every hour, and every second that passes is a…. is a time that this family should not be without a loved one, but she is loved, and we talk about her in the present sense and we're here with Andrea to support her. And uh… we're just all civilians, we're mothers, brothers, cousins, and we're part of a greater big family, and this is another family we are here. So, although you're missing one of your family, we’re here as your extended family, we are poor substitutes, but we won't rest until we can support you until we find the answers to what happened to Georgina.

Guitar and singer in the background

35:14 --> 35:44

DONAL:           As the posters are taken down and Georgina’s family and friends drift away there’s a sense that we’re making real progress here             

And as the candles are lit and Georgina’s family and friends share stories and memories, there’s a real sense that we’re making progress. Today it feels as though momentum is building – people are coming forward, and our enquires are working and the campaign is breaking new ground…

But this is the first week of March 2020 – the words pandemic and lockdown are being used more and more in the news, and we all know what happened next…

35:49 --> 36:05

Donal:             If you have any information regarding the Georgina Gharsallah case no matter how insignificant you may think it is please contact Sussex Police on 101 or in confidence via Crimestoppers who are offering a 10,000-pound reward.

Donal:             ‘Murdered, Missing Unsolved’ is presented by me Donal MacIntyre and produced by Inherent Productions and Steve Langridge, music is by Alex Sayne and additional audio production by John Franklin Audio.