THE mother of a teenage girl who went missing ten years ago today has made a heartfelt plea for anyone with information to come forward.

Rachel Wilson was 19 when she was last seen in Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough, shortly before 7am, on May 31, 2002.

Speaking from her home in Deepdale Avenue, Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, Rachel’s mother, Tina, said she would never give up hope that her eldest daughter would walk through her front door once again.

“I have hope, we all do, we’ll never give up,” said Mrs Wilson.

“The police have brought up that she might never come home, but I do not want to know that.

“I just want her back. It does happen.

“Somebody out there must know something and must have a conscience, they must come forward and say something.”

Mrs Wilson said she knew her daughter was taking drugs, including heroin, for about two years before she disappeared.

However, she did not know that she had become a prostitute at the time of her disappearance.

Mrs Wilson said: “She’d been a happy-go-lucky girl, just a normal girl.

“I talked to her about the drugs.

I asked her, ‘why, why are you doing this?’ and she said, ‘mam, I thought I was being big, like the older ones’.”

Mrs Wilson’s son, Richard Anthony, known as Benji, died from a drugs overdose of pills, aged 29 in 2005, and an inquest heard he never got over his sister’s disappearance.

Mrs Wilson’s husband, Bernard, 62, who brought up Rachel like his own daughter, is in hospital with a lung disease, and he has also never given up hope.

Rachel’s two remaining siblings, Carl, 25, and Nicola, 28, and five nephews and nieces, are all praying that she will one day come home.

Temporary Detective Chief Superintendent Gordon Lang said he is appealing to anyone who, for whatever reason, knew about the disappearance of Rachel Wilson, but did not feel they could come forward.

He said maybe now that person feels able to offer valuable information which could help police establish what exactly happened to her.

Det Chief Supt Lang said: “Rachel visited her family regularly and was always in touch with one of them on a daily basis.

“Ten years on from her disappearance we are hoping to uncover what happened to her and bring closure for her family.”

Cleveland Police can be contacted on 01642-326326 or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555-111.