Mystery as mum vanishes without a trace on walk to JobCentre – as CCTV shows last footsteps & family issue frantic plea
A MUM who vanished without a trace while walking to the JobCentre was captured on CCTV taking her last steps seven years ago.
Georgina Gharsallah, then 30, disappeared from her seaside hometown of Worthing, West Sussex, in broad daylight on March 7, 2018.
She had left her mum Andrea Gharsallah‘s home on that spring morning and headed to a shop to get her phone fixed.
The mum-of-two was then supposed to go to the local JobCentre in the hunt for work and on to meet her dad Gasem – but never showed up.
Nearly seven years on, cops are no closer to finding out what happened to Georgina.
Andrea has been plagued ever since by horrific thoughts of what has happened to her daughter – with armchair detectives spouting theories.
Flurries of grisly messages from people claiming to know what happened to Georgina have continuously been sent to Andrea.
Some suggested she was butchered and burned by a drugs gang, who then scattered her remains “all over”.
Andrea has pleaded with online sleuths to stop spreading stories that “are not supported by evidence”.
She said: “Whatever theories any of you may think you have come up with, there is absolutely nothing to confirm or corroborate those.
“The police have no idea what happened to Georgina.
“It’s only those few that do know who saw her that morning or anyone that spent some time with her, the ones who have not come forward and the ones that we are not aware of, who hold those answers.
“There are people that contact me quite frequently with what they think has happened to her and I am fully aware they talk of these across the crime groups.
“But there is no evidence whatsoever to support any of these stories.
“For the story tellers who gossip on the sidelines of the crime groups, it’s not helpful, but these people will always be the same.
“They are not clever. Georgina is missing still and nobody has any answers.”
The last definitive sighting of Georgina was on CCTV around 9.50am.
It shows her entering the Clifton Food and Wine shop in Clifton Road, Worthing, where she asked for help with her phone.
The owner spoke to her for around five minutes before directing her to a nearby phone shop, but she never made it there or visited the JobCentre.
I will never give up on you.
Andrea Gharsallah
Tracking of her mobile phone at the time showed it left the network shortly after 11:30am – while still connected to a local mast in Worthing.
Georgina’s family were not initially worried as she had drifted between friends in Brighton and a former partner.
But when she failed to make arrangements for her two young sons, who are now teenagers, she was reported missing.
After a police investigation, the case was recorded as a homicide in 2019.
Officers said there was “no proof of life” although admitted they have no evidence of what happened to her.
No trace of her has ever been recorded despite a £20,000 reward, Crimewatch appeals and a Crowdfunded campaign by her family.
However, a second grainy CCTV footage was released showing a woman who could be Georgina walking through the town with another woman at around 3.30pm on the same day.
“We have no idea who the other woman is at all. Nobody’s come forward,” says Andrea.
FEARS OF SEX TRAFFICKING, ABDUCTION OR SUICIDE
Andrea previously said her gut tells her that her daughter came to harm.
She told The Sun in 2020 she fears sex trafficking, abduction or suicide.
“I have gone through different stages. We had the trafficking [theory], the suicide…” says Andrea.
“Each one I have dismissed.
“A while back they thought she could have been trafficked out of the country, but other investigators said that’s very unlikely – they don’t traffick victims out, they traffick them in.”
Andrea recently said of Georgina’s disappearance: “Our lives have not been the same and never will be, for the emptiness of you not being here is with us every day.
“There are no words to say how much this has affected us, but I will never ever give up on you.”
Andrea also accused the force of failing to “conduct a proper CCTV search” around the time of Georgina’s disappearance, and of refusing to film a reconstruction for “strategic reasons”.
She claimed: “We’ve had to take the lead in the investigation and have been forced to because the police have been so reluctant to do the basics never mind go the extra mile.”
The mum staged her own video reconstruction of her daughter’s disappearance – with the help of former top Scotland Yard detective Clive Driscoll and investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.
The pair managed to find an actress who looks just like Georgina for the shoot.
Former DCI Driscoll – who investigated the murder of Stephen Lawrence – said he was “very surprised” that Sussex Police didn’t facilitate a reconstruction themselves, adding: “I am convinced that this reconstruction can make a positive difference in the search for Georgina.”
In a message to her girl, Andrea urged: “Please get in contact, just give us a sign, just let us know you’re OK. We love you and miss you so much, we just want to know you’re safe.”