Family’s hope that cold case review could find missing Leighton Buzzard woman after more than 50 years

Tina King's mum Evelyn, who moved to Luton from Leighton Buzzard in the 1950s, died five years ago, without knowing what had happened to her eldest child.

But Tina's remaining eight siblings hope the new investigation will help find what happened to the sister none of them ever met.

Tina lived for some time with her adopted family in Kempston under the name of Whittamore. But on May 31, 1971 she went for a walk in Luton. The 15-year-old never came back, and there have been no confirmed sightings of her since.

Now Bedfordshire Police’s Missing Persons team are conducting a review into the disappearance and they are asking anyone with information to come forward.

Tina's half sister Lorraine Major said the family was shocked to learn the case has been reopened. She said they had been contacted eight years ago by a Norwich cold case unit attempting to find the identity of a murdered girl buried in a pauper's grave in the town with the suspicion it could be Tina. But DNA testing proved otherwise.

"Mum always hoped that she would be found," said Lorraine. "It was a massive shock when we saw on Facebook that the case had been reopened. But one way or another we all want closure.”

Lorraine said Evelyn was not allowed to keep her child when she was born out of wedlock in 1955. Tina was placed in care and later adopted. But her family never forgot her and recently have been looking into how they could trace her.

Police only have one picture of Tina from the time she went missing. Experts have aged it to give an idea of what Tina might look now. She would be 68.

In 1971, Tina was placed in a Mother and Baby Unit in Luton and was last seen on 31 May at about 2.30pm when she said she was going for a walk and never returned.

In September 1971 Thames Valley Police issued a missing report for a woman called Christine King, who was 18 and had gone missing from High Wycombe. It was established that Tina and Christine were the same person.

In the early 1970s there was information to suggest she had lived and worked in Soho and Notting Hill in London but there was no further reporting until 1990 when the Metropolitan Police believe she was in a London hospital, but discharged herself before she could be identified. She was in Holland Park and in 1991 was reported to be sleeping rough in Notting Hill. Since then, there have been no reported sightings.

Tina was described as 5ft 2ins, fresh complexion, light brown hair, brown eyes and has a slight squint in the left eye.

Detective Sergeant James Morgan, of Bedfordshire Police, said: “We realise this is a case from many years ago, but we never give up trying to find people reported as missing. Cases, such as these, are reviewed on an ongoing basis and are re-opened if any new information is shared with us.”

If anyone is able to provide any further information, contact Bedfordshire Police online or on 101 quoting reference MPL/109/10.