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Family fear missing girl was ‘groomed’
Alex Scapens31/10/2007
THE distraught family of a missing Stockport teenager fear she has been ‘groomed’ and lured away by an internet predator.
Chloe Edmonds, of Dorset Avenue, Cheadle Hulme, was last seen by a neighbour getting into a grey van with two men on October 22, shortly after 10am.
Although she is 18 she has learning difficulties, and a mental age of just a 13-14-year-old. Chloe, pictured, had never before spent a night away from her family.
After nine days with no contact her heart-broken mum Shelly Flynn told us she fears the worst, as Chloe told a web pal she was going to leave home to see a man from Bristol she met on the internet.
Police have now taken the teenager’s computer and experts are looking at it for clues to her whereabouts.
Meanwhile, the family have set up a website to post updates, and where people can leave information about sightings of Chloe.
Shelly added: "Chloe is very naive and like a 13 or 14-year-old so we feel she could have been tricked or groomed on the internet by a promise of a fantastic new life. You can be whoever you want on the computer.
"It’s like she has been abducted, not in the physical sense but taken advantage of because of her vulnerability. I am devastated.
"There are no words to describe the pain, it hurts that much. I just want her to come home or at least get in touch so we know she’s safe."
Chloe, also known as Chloe Flynn, left a note saying: "I am 18 and can make my own decisions", and took her birth certificate, an out-of-date passport, National Insurance card and benefits book.
But Shelly and Chloe’s gran, Anne Edmonds, think she is so shy she would have had to be talked into leaving home and instructed on what to take with her.
More than 100 missing person posters have been put up around Stockport, many by her 16-year-old brother Paul.
The teenager, who rarely went out, preferring to use the computer or watch DVDs, is white, 5ft 7ins tall, slim, with blue eyes and blonde streaked hair.
She had made contact with her estranged father three years ago but not spoken to him recently.
The morning of her disappearance, she was wearing blue jeans, a grey top and silver hooded jacket. She often wears a white bomber jacket with a fur collar and walks knock-kneed with her head down.
A neighbour says one of the men in the car was white, in his 60s with white hair and was smartly dressed. The other was a scruffy mixed-race youth.
Shelly added: "What worries me is the lack of contact. If Chloe ever stayed with other family she would text as she went to bed and when she got up."
Police, who describe Chloe’s disappearance as "completely out of character", are concerned for her welfare and want to speak to the two men in the van.
Anyone with any information can contact Cheadle police on 856 9882. The website address is: http://chloeedmonds.wordpress.com/
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4/11/2007 at 03:19
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