German police close missing Louise Kerton case

Louise Kerton was due to return to England when she disappeared on 30 July 2001

Police in Germany have closed the file on a nurse from Kent who went missing in the country 10 years ago.

Louise Kerton, 24, from Broadstairs, was last seen on 30 July 2001 when she went to Aachen station to catch a train to Belgium, on her way back to the UK.

Despite extensive investigations in both the UK and Germany, she has not been seen or heard from since.

Her father Philip Kerton, from New Ash Green, said the family had now accepted that she must be dead.

"As far as the German Police are concerned, from about six or eight months ago, the case is definitively closed.

"As far as Kent Police are concerned, it's still open.

'Extra agony'

"They'll still keep it under review and will investigate any leads that come up, and review the case as they do from time to time.

"Hopefully they find, one day, new forensic techniques that will enable them to look again at some of the evidence they've accumulated."

Mr Kerton visited Germany several times to search for his daughter

Mr Kerton said it was "an extra agony" to know that the case in Germany was closed.

However, he said the family had decided some years ago that his daughter must be dead.

"It was so unlike her not to be in touch with anybody at all... every now and again you begin to think 'what if' and you go through all the emotions of anger and questioning.

"In many ways [it's] more comforting to think of her as dead and not undergoing some sort of tortured strange life somewhere.

"There's always hope we'll discover what's happened," he said.