Linda Rowe, who disappeared while on holiday in SA, has come forward after her family launched an international search.
|||Durban - Missing Linda Rowe, who was featured in last week’s The Independent on Saturday, has come forward after an international search to find her was launched by her family.
But she has steadfastly refused to have any contact with her husband or daughters, who were distraught after she disappeared without a trace.
This week, SA Community Crime Watch, which had assisted the family in searching for Rowe, confirmed that Rowe had reported to the police station in Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg, on Monday morning.
The crime watch’s Mike Venter said yesterday that Rowe had contacted him via e-mail and positively identified herself to the SAPS investigating officer.
Read: Puzzle of missing mom deepens
Her missing-person case has now been closed.
Rowe, her husband, Bill, and their three daughters – Kirsty, 39, Lisa, 41, and Kelly, 33 – left Pietermaritzburg 16 years ago to make a new home for themselves in Peterborough in the UK.
After Rowe left there for a holiday in South Africa in August last year, Bill found a letter she had written saying she was leaving him.
The day after her departure, her youngest daughter received a WhatsApp message saying she was fine and “not to worry”.
The following day, her cellphone number was changed and the family had no way of contacting her.
Kirsty, who came to South Africa to search for Rowe, said they had realised their mother wanted some space, but when she did not return for her youngest daughter’s wedding, they began to worry.
Kirsty said the family had hired a private investigator, but he had no success in finding her.
She then decided to come to South Africa and turned to the crime watch for help.
This week she remained bewildered as to why her mother was still choosing not to have any contact with her family.
“I feel completely heartbroken and will never understand this. But there is nothing more we can do if she doesn’t want to be in contact,” said Kirsty.
Despite the Durban private investigator’s failure to find Rowe, the crime watch located her within 10 days of being contacted by the family.
“We knew we were going to have to flush her out, so we put the message out on all social media platforms.
“Within seven hours of putting out the alert, we received feedback from people who knew her,” said Venter, adding that SA Community Crime Watch had a 100 percent success rate when it came to finding missing persons.
Independent on Saturday
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