Hi everyone. This is my first post on this forum, although I have been following some threads for quite some time.
I'm not native of England, but I've been living in the country for many years and I'm based in a town quite close to where Ruth lived, so her case always felt "close", in a way. After going through a lot of the news and sources available, I have some questions that I'd like to share with you:
- I've never heard mention of Ruth's biological mother's family (i.e., grandparents on mother's side). Although one would assume the police reached out to them back when Ruth disappeared and/or over the years, has there even been explicit mention (or an interview) of them at all? I'm not even sure whether they were/are actually alive.
- A bottle of Vermouth wine was found on Box Hill, along with the letters and the Paracetamol. Do we know for sure that the bottle belonged to Ruth? Was it ever tested for DNA? It would be interesting to understand if, maybe, other DNA was present. Again, one would assume the police have done all of this, but by following other missing persons cases, I've learned not to take things for granted. The police generally do a good job, but at times have also been incredibly sloppy or spectacularly missed on some obvious things.
- Was anything further revealed about the content of those letters? I understand they were worded as some sort of farewell, but why not send them, considering she went all the way to send those flowers to her stepmother? Was she just counting on them being found? Why run the risk of them never being read by the people she wrote them to?
- I've read mentions in articles of, quote-unquote, fairly reliable sightings in the weeks following her disappearance, but I could never find anything about them. Were they ever listed or described somewhere? Mind you, these sightings are separate from the one that allegedly occurred one year later on the disappearance's anniversary.
- In regard to the sighting at the Dorking newsagent's shop, I could only find one still black/white image that doesn't even show her face. Not very helpful. Was the CCTV ever released? And why would it not be, if there was a chance it could help in finding her?
- I don't know CCTV policy was at the time, but wouldn't the police also have looked at CCTV from streets and nearby shops to understand where this girl had come from and had gone to, after she left? She must have been picked up by other cameras. It's not explicitly mentioned how long the shop owner took before contacting the police, but it seems to have been almost immediately after. Provided the police did not wait for weeks or months (like in the Andrew Gosden case), they should have still had access to CCTV from the surrounding area.
As a general consideration about this sighting, I always thought it to be extremely bizarre and found it difficult to think it would not have been her (even her father seems convinced it was). On the other hand, I'm sceptical that she could have been hiding in exactly the same area she had disappeared from without ever being spotted or recognised by someone, unless she had found a way to shun public life completely. Very unlikely, but not impossible.
Thank you for your time.