family say that an alleged sighting of Amy Fitzpatrick, in Portugal was never followed up, even though Amy's aunt reported it to both the Spanish and Irish police. Amy's father, Christopher Fitzpatrick, is now attempting to raise funds in order to employ the private detective. "To be honest, not for one second did he ever think he would need to trouble anybody for help with funds but Spain is so far from Ireland and the costs to get anything done is crazy," said Amy's aunt Christine Kenny. "This is the first time Christopher has asked for help with funds and it will only be used to hire a private detective and any funds left over will go to the missing organisation in Ireland www.miss.ie to help other families in this situation." Amy disappeared on the evening of New Year's Day, 2008, at approximately 10pm. After she left her friend's house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol, on the Costa Del Sol in Spain, to take the 10-minute walk to her own house, Amy was never seen again. Adding to the family's trauma were hoax texts which had been sent to Amy's mother's phone claiming to be Amy.
One message read: "(Hi) mum n dad i am fine so stop worrying."
However, Amy's mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, knew that it wasn't her daughter who sent the text in question. "She wouldn't call me mum, she calls me something else," said Audrey. "If I get a message with that name then I'll know. "There's been a few (hoax messages) like that. I've had texts on my phone saying, 'It's me, I've no money, could you put free credit on my phone'. Plenty of them got free credit with that one," Audrey said.
"There have been some on the Bebo site as well. But the first thing I notice is the wording, it's not her," added the mother-of-two. Burglars broke into Audrey's home this month and stole a laptop the family were using in the search for her.
The stolen computer contained designs of search posters as well as hundreds of vital contact numbers Audrey and Amy's stepdad Dave Mahon had gathered during their eight-month search for the 16-year-old.
"There are numbers on there we'll never be able to recover," Audrey said.