NOSE pressed to the window, Brenda Harris can still remember the red cardigan and pencil skirt her 16-year-old sister wore as she left the house for a New Year’s Party in 1959.
The eight-year-old was given a kiss goodbye by Mary Flanagan before she walked out the front door and vanished – becoming the UK’s longest missing person case.
Brenda kept watching her sister for as long as she could – unaware she would never see her again.
In a mystery that has baffled police and her family for more than half a century, Mary never made it to work – with her family quickly discovering she hadn’t shown up to her job in West Ham for nearly two weeks.
Brenda, now 68, is facing the 60th anniversary of Mary’s disappearance this year, another grisly milestone to remind her of the sister she hasn’t seen since she was a child.
She said: “Your head tells you something has happened but my heart says she is out there somewhere.
“We just need to let her know it’s OK, that we’re not going to have a go at her – we just want to know she is alive and well, healthy and happy and that will be enough.
“You can’t grieve because you don’t know if she is alive or not. It’s the not knowing that’s the worst thing.
“I think about her every day – especially at family gatherings when you’re so aware someone is missing.
“Time is running out for all of us and I want to see her in this world and not the other.”
EVERY two minutes a child is reported missing in the UK.
This means 80,000 kids vanish without a trace every year.
Children are more likely to be reported missing than adults – one in 200 goes missing each year, while one in 500 adults disappear.
Kids in care are at the highest risk of being reported missing – one in ten compared to one in 200.
The Sun Online has teamed up with Missing People as part of their Find Every Child Week campaign.
Each day this week, we will speak to a different family who have been affected by a child’s disappearance.
This marks International Missing Children’s Day on May 25.
If you are away from home or thinking of leaving, or if you have information about a missing person or a missing loved one, call the charity’s free and confidential 24/7 helpline on 116 000 or email 116000@missingpeople.org.uk
Brenda and her sister Eileen are just one of the many families across the UK living in agony after a loved one seemingly vanished into thin air.
This year The Sun Online has teamed up with the Missing People charity to tell their harrowing stories ahead of International Missing Children’s Day on May 25.
As the years pass, Eileen and Brenda have grappled with their feelings and believe Mary ran away from her strict Anglo-Catholic home where she regularly clashed with their father.
But through the tears, anger and confusion, there is one feeling that has never wavered even their darkest hours – their unbreakable love for their sister.
On December 31, 1959, Mary woke up late and didn’t plan to go to her shift at the Tate & Lyle factory where she worked as a “Sugar Girl”.
But the teenager had a change of heart as the firm were throwing a New Year’s bash that night and she didn’t want to miss out.
At 1pm, she kissed her family goodbye, which was “unusual” for Mary, and bizarrely asked her mother to watch her as she walked through the alleyway near their home.
The next morning, her bed was empty and her family grew more anxious as the day wore on.
Eventually, they went to the factory and were horrified to discover Mary hadn’t been at work for two weeks – despite setting off and returning home at the same time every day.
As alarm bells began to ring, her parents went to the police, but no link to Mary Flanagan has ever been found.
Brenda said: “Sixty years later, we are still in the same position.
“Our parents have gone to the grave without ever knowing what happened to their first born.”
The Big Tweet for Missing Children is an online tweetathon held by Missing People every year to mark International Missing Children’s Day.
Over the space of 12 hours, the charity will tweet a different appeal for a missing child every half an hour from their Twitter account – @missingpeople.
The Sun’s own Twitter account will be retweeting each appeal so make sure to follow us too and share your support – @TheSun
To take part, follow @missingpeople or #TeamBigTweet on Twitter on Friday 24 May and retweet as many appeals as you can.
This year, Missing People will be helped with their campaign by band The Vamps.
You can help bring missing children home by texting ‘find’ to 70660 to donate £5.
Mary had been engaged to Tom at the time of her disappearance – a merchant sailor “liked” by the teenager’s strict father as he helped keep the rebellious girl under control.
The night before she vanished, Mary told her family she had split up with Tom because he’d “lied” to her about his living arrangements.
Eileen remembers hearing Mary arguing with their dad before coming into the bedroom they all shared in tears.
Both sisters now believe Mary may have been pregnant but struggle to understand why that would cause her to stay away for so many years.
As Eileen says, she would know by now her parents had died – a framed photo of their missing daughter in each of their coffins.
While Mary’s parents never spoke about her disappearance, the sisters are determined to keep her memory alive.
They have a folder full of ageing black and white photos of the teenager and their children and grandchildren all know about their “aunt Mary”.
In 2013, when Mary was due to turn 70, cops reactivated the case but their efforts were hampered by a flood at Plaistow police station which destroyed all the records.
Investigators tested DNA samples against 100 unidentified bodies in England but none were Mary’s.
But even 60 years later, Brenda can’t help but get her hopes up when she sees a flash of dark hair.
She admits she was “already on the train to Edinburgh” in her head when Scottish cops called her in 2016 saying a woman matching Mary’s description had walked in to a health clinic.
Unfortunately the woman insisted “I’m independent, I can look after myself” and had disappeared the next day.
Brenda said: “It’s like there’s been a hole where the piece of the puzzle is missing for all these years and it needs filling
“Please Mary, just reach out and let us know you are happy and OK so we can have closure finally.”
All the sisters can do now is live in painful anticipation each time the phone rings or there’s a knock at the door.
Eileen says: “If we hear she has passed away, we can grieve and it’s the end.
“At the moment there is no end to this story.”
Our campaign so far…
