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What has happened to missing Charlene?
IT was back in November 2003 when mum Karen Downes last saw her teenage daughter Charlene.
The bubbly 14-year-old was outside the Winter Gardens waiting for a friend before heading off to the Carousel bar on North Pier.
When she failed to turn up back at home in Buchanan Street, her family called in the police and one of the resort's most high-profile missing persons hunt was launched.
A team of 30 officers joined the search for the teenager and a dedicated incident room was set up at Blackpool's Bonny Street station.
Charlene's disappearance thrust the Downes family into the media spotlight.
Karen and her husband Robert made appeals through the pages of newspapers and on radio and television.
Just a few months ago the family took part in a BBC show about missing persons cases.
Television cameras retraced Charlene's steps and spoke to her parents, grandma and sisters. Throughout their ordeal, the Downes family have never given up hope that the happy, outgoing teenager, who would now be 16, would return home.
But as time went by and the first and second year anniversary of her disappearance passed, hope of finding the schoolgirl safe and well diminished.
Detectives even told the family to prepare themselves for the worst. At the outset of the investigation mum Karen made a tearful plea for her daughter to get in touch. Police staged a reconstruction of her last known movements in a bid to get possible witnesses to come forward and a poster of the smiling teenager was circulated to every police station in the country.
TV star Darren Day even issued an emotional plea for Charlene to make contact after hearing she was one of his biggest fans, having gone to every performance of his summer season show.
Thousands of leaflets were also handed out to tourists during the annual Illuminations.
Over time, the tone of the inquiry shifted from a missing persons investigation to a possible murder case.
And a year to the day since she disappeared without trace it transpired that police were investigating claims the 14-year-old was involved in child prostitution.
More than 3,000 people have been spoken to by police during the course of the inquiry and almost 2,500 statements taken.
A number of homes and restaurants have been searched but despite the extensive investigation there have been no confirmed sightings of the St George's CE High School pupil since her disappearance more than 28 months ago.
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Monday 13 February 2012
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