There was a time when the search for Katrice Lee was a fun, joyous thing.
The most baffling and heartbreaking Missing Person stories in living history
Her big sister Natasha remembers the ritual of ‘silly hide-and-seek games’ when Katrice was a toddler.
Sometimes Katrice — five years younger — would be there to meet her as she got off the school bus, but often she would get home to discover her little sister hiding behind the curtains for Natasha to ‘find’.
‘Of course, her feet would always be poking out the bottom,’ Natasha recalls.
42 years gone
If only it were so easy now. It is hard to believe, given the vividness of her family’s memories of her, but it is 42 years since Katrice Lee simply vanished.
Her family have never stopped looking for her.
Natasha tells me that when she got married a few years ago, she had a tiny red button from Katrice’s cardigan sewn in her wedding dress, ‘so that it would sit near my heart. She should have been walking behind me, as a bridesmaid. All I had was a button.’
The case of Katrice Lee is one of the most baffling and heartbreaking Missing Person stories in living history.
How can a child simply vanish in a matter of minutes?
What happened to Katrice Lee and when did the British toddler go missing?
Yet it happened, in 1981, on Katrice’s second birthday, of all days, on a trip to the supermarket with her mother and auntie to buy party supplies.
The family were living in British military accommodation in Germany at the time, and the trip to the local NAAFI store was a routine one.
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Except on this particular November day, Katrice’s mother, Sharon, forgot to pick up crisps, so dashed back to get some, leaving her in the care of her aunt — or so she thought.
In the few minutes it took her to return, Katrice was gone.
Each adult thought the little girl was with the other.
Nowadays the disappearance of a British toddler from a supermarket would be front page news, with every twist and turn in the ensuing investigation followed.
The politest thing the family can say about that today is: ‘What investigation?’
