Paper offers £25,000 reward in hunt for missing schoolgirl Tia

A £25,000 reward has been offered by a national newspaper for information that will lead police to find missing 12-year-old Tia Sharp.

The Sun announced the sum yesterday as police continued 
to scour the area around her grandmother’s home in New Addington, south east London where she was last seen on 
Friday.

Earlier her stepfather screamed with emotion as he appealed for help in searching for the missing youngster, crying: “Just find my little girl.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

David Niles, 29, said the family were “in bits” as the hunt for Tia entered its fourth day.

Police began searching a local wood, yesterday, less than a mile from her grandmother’s home in The Lindens.

Yesterday afternoon police began searching a local wood, Birchwood, less than a mile from Tia’s grandmother’s house in The Lindens.

A team of nine officers dressed in blue police baseball hats and black coats used long sticks to scour the undergrowth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last night, local people gathered at Croydon Rugby Club to spend the evening searching for Tia.

Club secretary Sue Randall said: “We were here last night with the police and they told us all to come back today.

“At the moment there’s about 100 people but more came and went off to start the search.”

Speaking from the grandmother’s home yesterday, Mr Niles, wearing a Find Tia campaign T-shirt, said; “I just want to find my little girl.

“How would you feel if it was your daughter?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’re in bits, the whole country has helped us and is supporting us. I haven’t slept in four days. Natalie (Tia’s mother) is in bits.

“The police have done everything.”

Tia has not been seen since leaving grandmother Christine Sharp’s home in New Addington, south-east London, at around midday on Friday, saying she was going to the Whitgift Centre in Croydon town centre.

She left with only a small amount of money, no mobile phone and no travel card.

She was dressed in a yellow vest top with grey patterned leggings and FCUK glasses.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Police have been scouring hours of CCTV footage but said they had not found any trace of the schoolgirl, who has never gone missing before.

It was believed the last person who saw her was Mrs Sharp’s partner, Stuart Hazell.

But Mr Niles said he was unsure about that. He added: “The last time I saw her was on Thursday morning before going to work (at the family home in Mitcham).”

He added: “I know I am not her real dad, but I have been there since day dot. I have fed her and bathed her. I just want her home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“When she left the house she shouted ‘Bye’ and ‘See you by six’.”

Mrs Sharp, speaking from her terrace home, said she hoped the image of her granddaughter taken outside the nearby Co-op on Thursday, which was released by the police on Monday, would jog people’s memories and bring forward new information.

She also thanked the community for supporting the family.

Outside the house yesterday a solitary candle burned in a glass holder with a plastic bottle covering it.

At a bus stop nearby, well-wishers who gathered for a candlelight vigil on Monday night left dozens of other burning candles and tealights with hand-written signs asking for Tia to be brought home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Police from other forces are also now understood to be assisting the search operation, supported by an army of local residents who are maintaining the family’s publicity campaign.

As well as the Sun reward, a local shopkeeper is understood to also be offering a reward, thought to be £500.

Related topics: