Daughter of Michelle Gunshon in Birmingham vigil over mum's disappearance
THE anguished daughter of a woman feared murdered made an emotional return to Birmingham on the fifth anniversary of her mum’s mysterious disappearance.
Tracey Richardson laid flowers close to the spot where her mum Michelle Gunshon was last seen while in the city working as a security guard on December 4, 2004.
Detectives have spent the past five years trying to find out what happened to the 38-year-old, but have drawn a blank. No trace of her has ever been found despite searches in the Worcestershire countryside.
The prime suspect in her disappearance, Martin Stafford, is currently in jail in Ireland, serving time for an unconnected rape.
Mum-of-one Tracey, from Manchester, said she was desperate to know what happened to her mum to end her heartache and stop the nightmares. Each year she travels to Digbeth to hold a poignant memorial for her mum.
Tracey, aged 26, said: “This time of year is always difficult but I have to stay positive for my son Reece and step-daughter Danielle.
“Mum will never be forgotten and sometimes if we are out at night Reece will point to a star in the sky and say that it is his nana. That helps to keep me strong during the tough times.”
Mum-of-three Michelle, from Mill Hill, in London, was in Birmingham to work as a security guard for the 2004 Clothes Show Live event.
She was staying at the Dubliner pub when she vanished.
Her Ford Escort car triggered two speed cameras hours after she was last seen. The car was found two days later with traces of her blood on the front seats and in the boot. It is believed she has been assaulted and killed.
Detectives called in psychological profilers and environmental experts to determine where her mud-spattered car may have been, narrowing down the origin of the soil to the west or south-west outskirts of Birmingham.
Irishman Martin Stafford is wanted in connection with her disappearance. At the time, police said they were “as sure as we can be” that he was the man driving Ms Gunshon’s car. He was staying at the Dubliner at the same time and disappeared shortly afterwards, later turning up in Ireland.
In 2006, he was jailed for nine years in Dublin for the rape of a 28-year-old prostitute in a disused railway carriage. West Midlands Police must wait until he has served that sentence before they can seek his transfer to the UK over the matter.
