Spanish police and volunteers continued their search yesterday for an Irish teenager who has been missing on the Costa del Sol since January 1st.
Amy Fitzpatrick (15) failed to return after spending New Year's Eve at a friend's house a short distance from her home in Riviera del Sol in Calahonda, near Mijas.
The Dublin girl was formally reported missing last Thursday morning, 36 hours after she failed to return home.
Search teams backed by a helicopter and sniffer dogs have repeatedly combed the area near the unlit road and short dirt track she would have taken from her friend's house, which is just a short distance away from her own home. The search has been extended to secluded spots in the hills around Mijas.
The missing girl's mother Audrey, brother Dean (17) and stepfather Dave Mahon, a local estate agent, said at a weekend press conference that they were "devastated" by her disappearance.
They pleaded for information leading to her safe return.
Initial reports from the local ex-pat community, where the family is well known having lived in the area for several years, indicated that the teenager may have run away following a row with her mother.
However, the family strenuously denied that Amy was experiencing problems.
A spokesman for the family, Franco Rey, said yesterday that any problems Amy had "were the same as those of other 15-year-old girls".
Mr Rey said the family wanted all the efforts to focus on the search for Amy, "and nothing should deflect us or the police from that".
He said even though Amy is Irish the family hoped the UK media would assist in publicising the disappearance given the popularity of the British newspapers on the Costa del Sol.
Audrey Fitzpatrick was visibly distressed when she appeared at the brief press conference held in a hotel near her home at the weekend to ask for help in finding Amy.
Describing her daughter as shy and quiet, she insisted that "a teenage girl does not simply vanish off the face of the earth".
"Someone must know or have seen something," she said, choking back the tears as she read a prepared statement. She also helped distribute posters with pictures of Amy.
Ms Fitzpatrick said she was becoming increasingly convinced that Amy was "being held against her will". However, she also pleaded with her daughter to get in touch if she had decided to run away.
To make sure that information received is not a hoax the family has asked for her possible abductors to use a code word - the name of the son of one of Amy's aunts - to show they are genuine.
Sources close to the police investigation said yesterday that "all options were still being considered", and detailed checks had been made of Amy's e-mail and computer in an attempt to find clues as to her whereabouts.
Police have also interviewed many of her friends from the local secondary school, as well as neighbours in the mainly foreign-owned development where the family lives.
However, it is thought that little has been learned of use to police in their inquiries.
Officers have refused to confirm or deny local reports that a white van was seen acting suspiciously in the area on previous days.
Amy's case has received extensive coverage in the Spanish media since Thursday.