The heartbroken father of Amy Fitzpatrick revealed how he is missing her “more than words can say” in a poignant message on a card on her 30th birthday.
And her aunt Christine Kenny told how her disappearance has taken its toll on the family and insisted they will “never give up” in the fight to trace her.
Amy was just aged 15 when she vanished from the Mihas area on the Costa del Sol in Spain on New Year’s Day, 2008.
To this day, her family and father Christopher have no answers as to what happened to her.
Yesterday, Amy’s family, along with, friends, local gardai and representatives held a ceremony at the sensory garden on Springdale Road, Edenmore in North Dublin on her 30th birthday.
In a card to his daughter, dad Christopher wrote: “To my beautiful daughter Amy, happy 30th birthday. Lots of love, Dad, missing you more than words can say.”
And in an interview with this newspaper, Christine insists that people know what happened to the missing woman and is pleading with them to come forward to the authorities.
She told the Irish Mirror: “She should be here. She was a lovely girl. She always had a massive smile.
“She always had the sparkly eyes and the smile she’d bring. The joy. It would be great just to find her, to know where she is.
“We want someone to come forward, it doesn’t matter who they come forward to, they can do it confidentially with the police, to give us all peace.
“It’s not just affecting me, her father Christopher has been through hell and back. Nobody knows what it’s like unless you’ve been there.”
Brave Christine added: “It’s horrible to think that people know where she is, know what had happened, know what was going on.
“All we can do is keep going because I will tell you, I will never give up the fight with Amy.”
At the emotional ceremony yesterday, people held candles as Happy Birthday was sung for the missing woman and prayers were said.
Amy’s close friends recalled how they found out about her disappearance and spoke of their shock at the time.
Amy Carroll told the Irish Mirror: “I didn’t think I’d be so emotional but just because I have one of my own now, I’m like, ‘Oh my God’.
“It’s so sad, and no one has closure.
“I’ll never forget it. We didn’t find out until January 4 and my friend texted me saying, ‘Amy Fitzpatrick is missing since New Year’s day’.
“I never hopped out of bed so quick. I flew around to the shops and she was all over the newspapers.
“I was like, ‘This isn’t happening, she’ll show up’ and all these years later, no closure.”
On fond memories she had with Amy, she added: “The summers with her and her coming back from Spain, and us going to an underage disco with her.
“I remember she went to Spain with a full blown Dublin accent and she came back with an English accent because she was around so many English over there.”
Another close pal of Amy, Shauna Grehan, smiled and said: “I remember the day my dad answered the phone and he was like, ‘Someone English is on the phone for ya’ and I was just like, ‘No that’s just Amy’.”
Christine is calling on the Irish government to assist her family in getting the Spanish police to reinvestigate Amy’s disappearance.
She told us: “She needs to be found.
“Amy is the priority. The country knows that that child has gone missing. She’s an Irish citizen. She was a child and we need a cold case. I have called on the Government on numerous occasions.
“Also I spoke with Dermot Ahern going back years ago and I was very disappointed in what I had found out.
“At the end of the day, the Irish government did nothing for Amy.
“Like there’s other things that happened to people, and they were assisting them. They have never ever assisted us at any stage.”
Christine revealed that she has been in contact with Sinn Fein’s justice spokesman Martin Kenny who is helping the family raise the issue with Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
She added: “It’s been very tough for us. We’re just going to keep going.
“We’re just going to keep the fight going.”
At the time of her disappearance, Amy and her brother Dean were living in Spain with Christopher’s ex-wife Audrey and her partner Dave Mahon. After returning to Dublin, Mahon stabbed Dean to death in May 2013.
He served just five years for manslaughter before his release from prison last year.
Speaking about her brother Christopher’s grief, Christine said: “To lose a child... and not only lose one child but then another child, when Dean was killed.
“It has taken the toll on our family but we’ll keep the fight up.”
She asked anyone with information to pass it on to the Spanish or Irish police, and added: “To our friends that lived in Spain at the time, if they have any information, please come forward – you would have known what was going on over there more than us here.”
