Portugal - Christine Davies, 28, & 2 daughters, Algarve, 4 April 2016

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los2188

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Desperate hunt for Brit mum Christine Davies and two young children who disappeared from 'ransacked' Algarve flat
Partner Aaron Rodwell came home to find his family gone and the apartment turned upside down, saying: "it's like they disappeared out of thin air, I just want my family back."
Christine-and-Ruby.jpg

A young British mum and her two children who have gone missing in Portugal are being hunted by police.
Pretty Christine Davies, 28, and her two daughters, Lilly, 18 months and Ruby, nine months, have not been seen for nearly two weeks since they disappeared from their flat in the Algarve.
Click to expand...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/desperate-hunt-brit-mum-christine-7757326​
 
I'm going to guess she's gone willingly & that the flat wasn't "ransacked" but she was making the most of a small window of opportunity (husband disabled & usually home all day but just happens to be out doing errands) to get essentials together. Hope Christine & the children are safe somewhere.
 
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting this but several thousand Euros being missing from a couple, one of whom does not work and the other of whom has only recently started a low-paid job, seems a lot of dosh. They moved out to Portugal a year ago so presumably the money is from savings they had in the UK. Or was there an another source of income in the year since they moved to Portugal?

Also the money is missing from the house, which implies it was in cash. Who keeps thousands of Euros in cash in the house?

I wonder what the husband's disability is. There's nothing obvious from the photo of him in the Mirror.
 
I see there's an all ports warning out for them. This would cover airports and presumably seaports but probably not road or rail border crossings to Spain. Since both countries are part of the Schengen zone, there should be no formalities in them crossing into Spain either by road or rail.

I also notice that Boliqueime, the village where they were living, has a railway station. It's on a line which runs close to the Algarve coast, through Faro (where the main airport for the region is situated) but stops at Vila Real de Santo Antonino, where the river Guadiana forms the frontier. Otherwise she would need to take a train to Lisbon and then cross the frontier by rail much further north.

The alternative is that she took a train to Vila Real and then possibly took a taxi over the border to Huelva where there is a station and access to the Spanish rail network. That's not far - less than 30 miles and it seems she had plenty of cash on her.

All assuming she did leave voluntarily of course.
 
This article explains a lot. :(

He said last night: 'I have no doubts Christine has left voluntarily but I'm concerned for her emotional wellbeing and obviously our children.
'She loves them and I'm sure wouldn't do them any harm but that doesn't mean they're not at risk if she's emotionally not in the right frame of mind.
.........

He added that the couple had previously argued but said on the whole their relationship was steady.
............

'Her mobile's not working anymore and her email has been disconnected.
'A neighbour has told me she saw a man in a hire car coming to pick up her and helping her load the vehicle up while I was gone.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...en-partner-running-errands.html#ixzz45seK8UKA
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 
Lilibet said:
This article explains a lot. :(

He said last night: 'I have no doubts Christine has left voluntarily but I'm concerned for her emotional wellbeing and obviously our children.
'She loves them and I'm sure wouldn't do them any harm but that doesn't mean they're not at risk if she's emotionally not in the right frame of mind.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It does suggest that she has mental health issues, which coupled with his being disabled suggests to me that the whole family is/was vulnerable. I don't know if Aaron would have been able to claim any social security benefits in Portugal (possibly not - most European countries have much stricter qualifying critera than the UK does) but if she has skipped with so much money he could be pretty much destitute.

It makes you wonder why they would uproot themselves in such circumstances. Did they have relatives who had previously moved to the area, or were they really on their own? Did either of them speak Portuguese? It seems very risky to me.

I still wonder about there being so much cash in the house. Opening a bank account in the EU is pretty difficult these days due to money laundering regulations, but they should have been able to manage it within a year.

ETA that if she was planning to harm herself and the children then taking passports and money does not make sense. I wonder if she regretted the move and was planning to make her way back to Merseyside.
 
Two things come across as strange to me. That he waited a week before contacting police and that the poster he's holding is about the children being abducted, rather than about all three being missing(although the mother's picture is on the poster too).

With him not liking her having a job and calling her back home early before she had finished her shift the night before she disappeared , maybe she found him too controlling and decided to leave.

He said: 'She'd taken on a poorly-paid job about a month ago which I didn't feel she needed to be doing because we didn't need the money.
'I rang her the night before she disappeared asking her to come home early so she could be with the children because I needed help.
'She was supposed to finish about 10pm that night but came back about 7pm.
'I left early the following day to go into Albufeira and run some errands and that was the last time I saw her or heard from her.
'Her mobile's not working anymore and her email has been disconnected.
'A neighbour has told me she saw a man in a hire car coming to pick up her and helping her load the vehicle up while I was gone.
Click to expand...
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-35...en-partner-running-errands.html#ixzz45tHjGx8y



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MelmothTheLost said:
Indeed. It does suggest that she has mental health issues, which coupled with his being disabled suggests to me that the whole family is/was vulnerable. I don't know if Aaron would have been able to claim any social security benefits in Portugal (possibly not - most European countries have much stricter qualifying critera than the UK does) but if she has skipped with so much money he could be pretty much destitute.

It makes you wonder why they would uproot themselves in such circumstances. Did they have relatives who had previously moved to the area, or were they really on their own? Did either of them speak Portuguese? It seems very risky to me.

I still wonder about there being so much cash in the house. Opening a bank account in the EU is pretty difficult these days due to money laundering regulations, but they should have been able to manage it within a year.
Click to expand...

According to the gov.uk website you can still claim some benefits if you move to the EEA (which includes Portugal) so it's possible they were still getting them
Going abroad permanently to another EEA country or Switzerland

You may get Disability Living Allowance care component, Personal Independence Payment living component, Attendance Allowance or Carer’s Allowance as appropriate if you or a family member are eligible and:
work in the UK or pay National Insurance in the UK because of work
have paid enough National Insurance to qualify for contribution-based benefits
are getting State Pension, Industrial Injuries Benefit, contribution-based ESA or bereavement benefits

You can’t claim Disability Living Allowance mobility component and Personal Independence Payment mobility component abroad.

If you’re already living in another EEA country or Switzerland you don’t need to have claimed in the UK before you go. But you must:
be habitually resident in the EEA country or Switzerland
have a genuine link with the UK social security system, eg you’ve lived or worked in the UK
Click to expand...
https://www.gov.uk/claim-benefits-abroad/illness-injury-and-disability-benefits

Or maybe they have cash from a house sale in the UK or received compensation or an insurance payout for whatever his disability is.
 
ColourPurple said:
Two things come across as strange to me. That he waited a week before contacting police and that the poster he's holding is about the children being abducted, rather than about all three being missing(although the mother's picture is on the poster too).
Click to expand...

Yes, that week does seem a long time to wait before talking to the police. It's likely that he quickly discovered that clothes and passports were gone so felt fairly certain the three hadn't been abducted by another person, and perhaps waited a few days to see if she called him from Liverpool ("Sorry, Bab, I can't do this any more. Portugal was a mistake."). Then phoning friends in Portugal and the UK and waiting to see if she came back. I guess if there were no sinister signs a reasonable person might well take a while before feeling the need to contact the police, especially in a foreign country where perhaps he didn't speak the language.

On the other hand, he might have had other very specific reasons for not contacting the police immediately.

With him not liking her having a job and calling her back home early before she had finished her shift the night before she disappeared , maybe she found him too controlling and decided to leave.
Click to expand...

I'd missed that bit about them not needing the money, which I find interesting. It sounds as though she may have been keener to become fully established in the local community than he was. A job, no matter how menial or poorly paying, does mean that you get to meet the locals.
 
15 years together is more than half of their lives. I suspect she may have been feeling trapped and wanted to escape, but I hope she will contact somebody to confirm she and the children are safe.
 
MelmothTheLost said:
Yes, that week does seem a long time to wait before talking to the police. It's likely that he quickly discovered that clothes and passports were gone so felt fairly certain the three hadn't been abducted by another person, and perhaps waited a few days to see if she called him from Liverpool ("Sorry, Bab, I can't do this any more. Portugal was a mistake."). Then phoning friends in Portugal and the UK and waiting to see if she came back. I guess if there were no sinister signs a reasonable person might well take a while before feeling the need to contact the police, especially in a foreign country where perhaps he didn't speak the language.

On the other hand, he might have had other very specific reasons for not contacting the police immediately.
Click to expand...

Do you think maybe she left a note and that's why hubby says "I have no doubts Christine has left voluntarily".? Or is the sighting from a neighbour the reason he doesn't doubt she left voluntarily?

If the sighting by a neighbour of somebody turning up with a hire car and helping Christine load it is accurate then it does sound like she got help to leave the situation she was in. Had there not been that sighting I'd have been worried that something awful had happened the night Christine was called back home early from work.


I'd missed that bit about them not needing the money, which I find interesting. It sounds as though she may have been keener to become fully established in the local community than he was. A job, no matter how menial or poorly paying, does mean that you get to meet the locals.
Click to expand...

True and it could even be that she met somebody new whilst at work.
 
MelmothTheLost said:
There's an update.

Apparently Christine has contacted her partner to tell him they are safe but won't tell him where they are.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-young-children-partner-running-errands.html
Click to expand...


Great news . I was a little concerned that the contact was only via email. I hope she contacts other members of her family by phone too.
He said: 'She emailed me last night to say they are alive but she would not say where they are. I'm still very worried about them and the police are still very keen to find them.
'I'm very happy to have heard from her but it's important for her to bring the babies home.'
Click to expand...

This sounds like a positive sighting though
It also emerged that Ms Davies had spent three days at a campsite on the Algarve with the two children after leaving home.
A police source said: 'We have spoken to witnesses at the campsite who said the children were being well looked after. Christine was with some other adults at the campsite.
'She left the campsite on April 7 and we are investigating her current whereabouts.'
Click to expand...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-35...en-partner-running-errands.html#ixzz45towiHap
 
ColourPurple said:
Do you think maybe she left a note and that's why hubby says "I have no doubts Christine has left voluntarily".? Or is the sighting from a neighbour the reason he doesn't doubt she left voluntarily?
Click to expand...

I've seen no mention of a note, but if he knew where the passports and birth certificates were kept and very quickly found them missing that alone would probably convince him she had left voluntarily. I don't imagine abductors spend time looking for documents.

If the sighting by a neighbour of somebody turning up with a hire car and helping Christine load it is accurate then it does sound like she got help to leave the situation she was in. Had there not been that sighting I'd have been worried that something awful had happened the night Christine was called back home early from work.
Click to expand...

Christine had only recently started her job so Aaron probably did not have much experience of looking after two very young children for hours at a time on his own. His calling her home early is something I'm more inclined to put down to his probable inexperience in childcare.

Even if he had murdered Christine I've seen no mention of a car so suspect he would have had problems disposing of her body. And then what would he have done with the kids?

True and it could even be that she met somebody new whilst at work.
Click to expand...

Yes! I hadn't thought of that but it does sound plausible.
 
Anyone seeing updates on this? I've had a quick look and can't find anything in the media since mid April, I also can't find any FB profiles.

I'll admit I'm not trying too hard, it's too sunny!!
 
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