The phone of the Moot mother who went missing over a year ago has been traced to Motherwell, Port Elizabeth.
The family of Madelein Murray, a mother of five, had decided to trace her phone after noting someone had updated her Facebook page recently.
Murray disappeared in November 2016 when her car was swept away during a flash flood in the Apies river in Capital Park. She was trying to cross the low-water bridge on Flowers Street in the Moot at the time.
Her son, Henco, who was with her at the time of the accident, was found alive approximately a kilometre from the bridge.
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At the time, the SAPS, fire department personnel, CPF and other volunteers searched for her as far as the Bon Accord dam – to no avail.
SAPS divers also joined the search, scouring the river three times, but were also unable to locate the 43-year-old.
Francis Venter, Madelein’s mother said Murray’s WhatsApp account had been active last September and October whoever was using it had blocked her when she tried to correspondent then the phone had remained off until recently.
Venter said she had since hired a forensic technologist and private investigator to join the search party.
She said positive leads on the case had been generated and were followed up culminating in the trace but would not mention the exact location the phone had been traced to for fear of hampering the investigation.
She said they believed that the cell phone just landed in the wrong hands but did not believe her daughter had drowned.
“I still have many questions… I will never give up the search because I will never have peace until I know what really happened to my daughter,” said a sobbing Venter.
“We will exhaust all methods and resources to get to the bottom of what happened to my child.”
Wonderboompoort SAPS were not available for comment by the time of going to print.
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Murray had lived in the Moot in Capital Park for the past 18 years.
Venter described her daughter as a loving person.
“Nothing could hurt her or bring her down and she always walked around with a smile on her face,” she said.
“I miss my daughter so much.”
In a previous article, Venter said she did not believe her daughter was in the vehicle when it was flushed from the bridge.
On the evening of Murray’s disappearance “my daughter dropped me off at home and I told her to send me an SMS once she gets home”.
“That was the last time I saw her,” said Venter.
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