Amy Fitzpatrick Mayor of Mijas should erect posters and billboards with Amy's photograph and details

Audrey Fitzpatrick said she was glad to have the opportunity to ask Ambassador Mercedes Rico in Dublin to assist in getting more action from the Spanish authorities. Amy was 15 when she disappeared in Spain on the night of January 1 last year. She left a friend's house to walk about one kilometre to her own home in Calahonda on the Costa De Sol but failed to arrive. The Dublin teenager had lived in Spain with her mother, brother and her mother's partner for some years since moving there from Ireland. A search by Spanish police, including the use of helicopters and tracker dogs, failed to find any trace of her. Audrey told the Herald she would ask the ambassador today to do what she could to persuade the local authorities in the Costa del Sol to erect posters and billboards with Amy's photograph and details in the hope it might lead to a breakthrough. "The local mayor said no when we asked him to put up billboards but we think they would be a great help. I got the idea when I saw billboards in Gran Canaria put up by the local council seeking information on a missing seven-year-old boy. "Our own mayor of Mijas should do the same for Amy," she said. The Dublin mother is also seeking help from the ambassador in her quest to have a meeting with the Spanish prime minister to appeal personally for more resources to be put into the investigation. She said both Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen had met with her personally while taoiseach and she believed a personal meeting with the Spanish leader could help the search. Audrey and her partner Dave Mahon were scheduled to fly back to their home in Spain after today's meeting.