A Change of Guard

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Sunday 11 January 2015

EDDIE GIBSON was 19 when he went missing in Cambodia in 2004. Since then, his mother Jo has been to the country nine times and spent more than £20,000 trying to find him. She spoke to Melanie Whitehouse 
Published: Sun, January 11, 2015
By MELANIE WHITEHOUSE
life, missing, search, death, Jo Gibson-Clark, Melanie Whitehouse










Jo Gibson-Clark with his son, Eddie in Sydney

Jo Gibson-Clark, 58, lives in Sussex with her second husband Tony. She says:
“Eddie took a gap year in 2003 and spent it travelling. He went to Sydney, where Tony and I flew out to meet him, and then on to Cambodia, where he apparently met a local girl. He came back home in the autumn to start at university, but three weeks later he had disappeared.
He emailed me on October 21 saying, 
‘You’re the best mum in the world and I love you to bits, but university isn’t for me – I’m going back to Cambodia.’ Then he sent a second email saying he was coming home on November 1 and giving me his flight times. It ended, ‘Love you loads.’
I went to meet him at Heathrow with Michael, his dad. Eddie liked to be first off the flight and I kept thinking he’d be here any minute. Then I started to feel that something wasn’t right. 
We asked Thai Airways to check and they said he’d never checked in at Bangkok. 
That’s how the nightmare began. I’d brought up three children the same way and they had really happy childhoods. Even when I split up with Michael, we always remained friendly. Tony got on well with the kids and Eddie was really fond of him. But when someone goes missing, you start examining all the little things, trying to find a reason.
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Just after Christmas 2004, Michael flew to Cambodia with Eddie’s older brother Elliott. A friend had already been out there with posters of Eddie. By sheer fluke, they’d found a taxi driver who had taken Eddie to a guesthouse, and his signature was in the book, but there the trail went cold.
In January I went out there myself, with Tony, my best friend and her husband. We searched the length of Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat and the beaches, we went to the embassy and we spoke on TV and radio. I plastered the news about Eddie being missing and that there was a £15,000 reward, all over Cambodia. All these ex-pats came out of the woodwork and offered their help in return for money. Eventually we worried that we were putting ourselves in danger.
I was totally focused on trying to find my son and I really believed that I would, but there were so many false leads, so many dead ends, so many people after our money. Then there was the natural inclination of some to say whatever they think pleases a foreigner, so we’d be told they’d seen Eddie in a nightclub but it wouldn’t be true. It was horrendous – it felt like being in a washing machine, going round and round. I couldn’t eat and I had palpitations – I just wanted somebody to tell us the truth. 
When we flew home without any answers, I knew that something terrible had happened to Eddie and I felt physically sick. He’d had about £3,000 in notes on him when he left the UK, because in those days there were no cash machines in Cambodia, so we suspect he was attacked for his money as he went to cross the border to Thailand to get his plane home. We were told early on that Eddie may have been killed by the Scorpion gang.
People kept saying, ‘He’s 19 – he’s probably gone off in a daydream somewhere,’ and for years I didn’t give up. I felt that there was always hope until they found a body and 
I went to Cambodia for the last time in 2010, filming for Tonight with Trevor McDonald, spending a week in Phnom Penh. But by then, I knew in my heart that he wasn’t coming back. 
We all miss Eddie so much. He was such a character and so well loved. He was sparkling, so adventurous, he smiled all the time and had such a zest for life. Losing him hit us hard. As a family, we stayed very strong and we had brilliant support from our friends, but for a while I became very cynical and mistrustful. I’m a bit better now, but I’ve lost my faith in God. 
All this has taught me how fragile life is. One minute you’re here, the next you’re not. Eddie would have been 30 on January 26, but after 10 years I know my son isn’t coming home. I think he was murdered and his body was dumped, so we have taken the big step of registering him as deceased with the courts and arranging a memorial service. There will also be a lasting memorial at his beloved Hove Rugby Club. It will be really painful but we will always remember him. To me, Eddie will always be 19 and will never grow old. I was blessed to have that 19 years with him. 
A lot of people spend their lives moaning about nothing. What we’ve been through has taught me to value life, friends and family, and I was so happy when Elliott’s son Oscar was born last January, three days after Eddie’s 29th birthday. 
He came out with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair – the spitting image of Eddie at that age.” 

The missing
Foreign Office figures show that 3,059 British nationals have gone missing abroad since 2009, at the rate of about 600 each year. After Lucie Blackman, 21, disappeared in Tokyo, where she was working as a bar hostess in 2000, her father Tim set up the charity Missing Abroad to help families trace their relatives. Other missing people on its website include:
Alastair Cruickshank, 27, missing since October 29, 2013, when he was seen sailing on the boat Golden Dawn off the coast of Spain/Portugal.
Georgina Adams, 39, last seen in Paris in March, 2008, when she was in France on holiday, visiting a friend.
Nathan Clarke, 31, who disappeared from outside a beach bar on Grand Cayman island on February 25, 2012, wearing beige shorts and no shirt. 
Christopher “CJ” Miles, 28, who went missing in Ruhpolding, Germany, on July 31, 2010. He was working in Austria as a driver and is bipolar.
Matthew Jackson, 18, who went missing in Tenerife on December 18, 2009. He was on holiday with his girlfriend at the time.
Amy Fitzpatrick, 15, last seen on New Year’s Day 2008 in the Calypso and Riviera area of Calahonda on the Costa del Sol in Spain.
For more information on Missing Abroad, see missingabroad.org, call 020 7047 5060 or freephone 0800 098 8485 for sightings.
Young children missing include:
Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007, aged three. Portuguese police have been questioning 11 people as part of the latest inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Ben Needham, who was 21 months old when he vanished from the Greek island of Kos in 1991, while his grandparents Eddie and Christine were looking after him.
Jo Gibson-Clark’s safety tips for young travellers
Always travel in pairs.
Never go out on your own.
Put a tracking device on your mobile and always have it on.
Keep in regular touch with those back home, so they know where you are.

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