Deborah Steel: Sister of missing landlady vows to find truth

Deborah Steel's 1997 disappearance became a murder inquiry in 2014

A sister of a pub landlady who went missing 25 years ago has vowed to carry on the family's search for answers.

Police believe Deborah Steel, 37, was murdered after a shift at the Royal Standard in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in 1997, but no-one has ever been charged.

Gini Secker, who led previous family appeals and spoke to the BBC of the "burden" of the case, died last year.

Their sister Sam Hesketh said: "I was with Gini at the end and promised her I'd keep on trying to find the truth."

"You don't just disappear," she added. "Even after 25 years, someone knows what happened.

"Our dad went to his grave without answers and I think that broke Gini's heart. Now she'll never find out, either."

Sam Hesketh said finding out what happened to her sister would give the family some closure

Mrs Secker, speaking to the BBC in 2017 at the pub she ran in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, said her sister's disappearance had been "a 20-year burden".

"It blackens my heart. Debbie was popular, bubbly, flirtatious - my best friend," she said.

The most upsetting moment, she revealed, was an appeal from their father, Bill, on his deathbed in 2010.

"It broke his heart when she went missing," Ms Secker said.

"His last words were 'find out what happened to my girl'. He never gave up looking for an answer but I think he gave up on ever seeing her alive."

Gini Secker, pictured in 2017, made appeals for information on behalf of the family before her own death last year

Mrs Hesketh, 53, who lives in Bolton, said: "I hate this time of year, especially with Gini gone.

"And with Debbie, we haven't got closure, we have no body to bury and no place to go to remember her."

Detectives believe Ms Steel was murdered in Longfields, Ely, where she had taken a taxi for the mile-long journey home at 01:00 GMT on 28 December 1997.

The case, classified as a murder inquiry in 2014, saw land at two addresses excavated.

Bulldozers peeled back the patio area of the pub and the garden of her home in Longfields - but nothing was found.

Detectives said Ms Steel had no reason to disappear and "firmly" believe she was murdered

Three men, then aged 50, 70 and 73, all from Ely, were arrested during the investigation but released with no action taken in 2015.

Mick Flavin from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said: "We firmly believe Deborah was murdered 25 years ago and we believe someone out there knows what happened and can provide key information.

"Deborah's parents died without knowing what happened to her. The rest of her family deserve to know what took place."

Closure

Police said Ms Steel had no reason to disappear - having secured finance on a new catering business.

Mrs Hesketh agreed, adding: "If she has gone somewhere and changed her identity, fair enough.

"But we could never figure out why she'd do that. She had so much going for her.

"If she has been killed, the right thing would be for the person who's done it to step up now.

"We always hold on to hope. All we hope for is closure. I think we know what the outcome is but we want it in black and white."

Bulldozers unearthed the garden at Deborah Steel's home in Longfields in 2014