THE last person to see missing Irish teen Amy Fitzpatrick says she hasn’t spoken to Spanish cops in 17 years and cried: “I fear she will never be found.”
Ashley Rose was 13 when she waved goodbye to her pal outside her house on the Costa Del Sol as Amy began the short walk home at 10pm on New Year’s Day 2008 — only never to see her again.
Yesterday, the 30-year-old mum told of her anger at the way Amy’s case has been treated in Spain.
She said: “The way the Spanish police have treated this case from the start is an absolute disgrace.
“They are convinced Amy ran away from home, is still alive somewhere and that is the end of it. They have no interest looking for her or trying to find out where she is buried.
“Everyone who knew Amy is convinced she is dead and that something terrible happened.
“But the Spanish police are not interested. If Amy was Spanish they would move heaven and earth to find her.
“They are treating her case as a missing person — they should be upgrading it to a murder probe.
“Over the past few years, they were given information from the local criminal underworld that Amy’s remains were buried in one of the stable blocks at the old racetrack in Fuengirola.
“But they ignored this tip-off and never bothered searching the racetrack. They had nothing to lose in searching for her body and if they didn’t find her, at least they would know she is not there.”
Spanish cops are said to be dubious about the tip-off and have yet to carry out a full-scale dig of the area near the racecourse.
Ashley said it is also incredible the police have only interviewed her once despite being the last person to see Amy alive — and it was 17 years ago.
‘NEVER BOTHERED TO CALL ME’
She continued: “Can you believe they have not been in contact with me during all that time?
“They spoke to me when I was a kid — 13 years of age — and never bothered to call me years later to see as an adult if I remembered any more.
“Like most people who knew Amy, I believed that she was killed and that her whole murder is being covered up.
“I have my own suspicions about what happened to her and who did it but I am not going to start naming names.
COPS ‘SHOULD BE ALL OVER THIS’
“The police should be all over this and the people responsible for Amy’s disappearance and murder should not get away with it.”
Spanish police said the file on Amy’s case is still open but they are still treating her disappearance as a missing person’s inquiry.
However, Amy’s dad Christopher Fitzpatrick, his sister Christine Keegan and the Irish Government have been trying to put pressure on the Spanish government to treat Amy’s case as murder.
Amy had lived with her mother Audrey, stepfather Dave Mahon and late bro Dean in Calahonda, halfway between Fuengirola and Marbella, when she went missing.
