The cancer stricken father of missing schoolgirl Genette Tate made a sad pilgrimage to her village church to mark the 38th anniversary of her disappearance.
It was the first visit to the headstone in the churchyard at Aylesbeare near Exeter, Devon, since the only suspect in the case Robert Black died in jail earlier this year – just days before he was due to be charged with the teenager’s murder.
Wheelchair bound John Tate, 74, flew to Devon from his home in Manchester and met up with Genette’s mother Sheila.
Devon and Cornwall Police said Scotsman Black was their only suspect in the suspected kidnapping and murder of 13-year-old Genette who vanished while delivering newspapers in her home village on August 19, 1978.
Her body has never been found.
A stone has been laid at the village church in memory of the teenager.
Police spent months putting together a case against Black and were just days from charging him when he collapsed and died in jail in Northern Ireland in January this year.
The 68-year-old was serving 12 life sentences for the kidnap and murder of four girls in the 1990s.
John Tate said: “I would have liked to have seen Robert Black go on trial charged with Genette’s kidnap and murder but now that has been denied us.
“It seems the police have closed the case now that their only suspect is dead. But we still don’t know where Genette’s body is.”
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