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Natalie Putt 13 years on: Family vow never to give up on their 'special girl

'Someone knows something, people do not just disappear – all we need is a little chink and the police will do the rest'.

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The half-sister of missing mother-of-one Natalie Putt has launched a fresh appeal for her whereabouts on the 13th anniversary of her last sighting.

Natalie would now be 30 years old

Natalie would now be aged 30. She vanished from her home in the Black Country leaving her baby behind despite a nationwide search and renewed appeals on BBCs Crimewatch.

Reported sightings were made of her across the country from Bournemouth to Scotland, but still to this day her devastated family are no clearer on what happened to her after she left her Lower Gornal home for local shops.

"She is the missing piece from her family – not a day goes by when I do not think and miss her, she was a special girl with her whole life ahead of her," said her half-sister Rebecca Coggins.

Mrs Coggins, who now lives in Nottingham and saw Natalie three weeks before she went missing, has renewed an appeal to find her or missing evidence on when she was last seen. And she has shared a treasured photograph of Natalie as a bridesmaid at her wedding to husband Jonathan in 2001 – two years before her disappearance.

She said: "It is now 13 years on from when she disappeared. There may be an x, y or z who saw something at the time but did not say anything for whatever reason.

"They will be grown up by now, they should now surely come forward and help us put together the pieces. Tell the police, please.

"People do not just disappear, especially Natalie. She was so popular, everyone says good things about her, how much they miss her. I will never give up."

Natalie had given birth to her son, Rhys, only 11 weeks before she disappeared.

A major search for her was launched including at a pool near her home in Thornleigh in the weeks which followed.

Rebecca Coggins, husband Jonathan and bridesmaid Natalie in 2001

But the investigations drew a blank and the case went cold until three years ago when, after receiving fresh information, police dug up a paddock in Himley where Natalie kept horses.

But, again, the search proved fruitless leading to another appeal on the 10th anniversary of her disappearance which featured a computer image showing what Natalie, who went missing aged 17, could now look like.

Using photographs of her late mother Jennifer and sisters, officers produced the computer-generated image of Natalie aged 24. Nothing still came to light.

Then three years ago officers probing the then 10-year-old disappearance said there was no evidence she was murdered or that she planned to kill herself.

The claim came as another campaign was launched through social networking sites to contact her.

Natalie had been out for the night with a friend the day before she went missing.

She returned home at around 9am and stayed until noon before heading out on a shopping errand.

At the time there were unconfirmed sightings of her in Cradley Heath and Coseley, while officers checked hostels, hospitals Natalie's friends in a bid to trace her.

She did not take her mobile phone or any possessions.

A CGI image of how Natalie could have looked aged 24

Officers have said from the day she went missing her bank account remained untouched. They said the last communication she made was a voicemail on the day suggesting she was planning to visit friends in Tamworth.

Mrs Coggins is a member of a Facebook group trying to track Natalie down. It has almost 1,000 members.

She said: "It's 13 years ago. Today I continue to feel deeply sad.

"I constantly get messaged nice things about her, it all adds to my question on why she disappeared without trace.

"She was attractive not just in terms of looks, but also as a person, no-one had anything against her.

"And to have had the little baby so soon after she went, something she had always wanted, it makes no sense to me. She is the missing piece in our family and we're desperate to have her back."

In their bid to find Natalie, the family have worked with the national charity Missing People to try to jog memories about her disappearance.

Missing People works to try to find around 100,000 under 18s who disappear in the UK every year. The search went to the extent of printing Natalie's picture on milk bottle labels.

The appeal described how she usually wore a pendant necklace with the words 'someone special' engraved on it. She was last seen wearing a white hooded top.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "No unsolved murder or missing person case is ever closed. We have a dedicated review team that routinely re-examines historical cases and looks for new evidential opportunities."

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