Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. This is episode nine of
twelve missing person episodes throughout December. Today we're going to be looking at the
disappearance of Alisha Apostolof by Arn in January twenty twenty two. Her disappearance is
quite a recent one and any appeals for information may well be helpful, and
so I wanted to include it in my twelve Days episode. This episode is
about a missing person and does not contain any graphic descriptions. However, it
does reference alcohol dependency and so listener discretion is always advised. On Wednesday,
the second of February twenty twenty two, a report came in to Greater Manchester
Police about a missing twenty four year old woman. The woman was Alicia apostle
of by Aarn and she was reported missing by her grandmother. Her grandmother hadn't
seen her and she was worried about her welfare given that she didn't know where
she was. Greater Manchester Police immediately began a missing person investigation and tried to
track down where she could be. Alicia had been living in the area of
Ashton under Lyne, which is a market town located in Tameside, around six
miles east of Manchester City Center. It reported that Alicia lived with her great
grandfather in Ashton Underlyine, but that she was also extremely close to her grandmother,
which is why this was who reported her missing and had noticed her absence.
There isn't much published about Alicia's childhood and life at the time that she
disappeared. It is known, however, that the investigation was launched quickly as
Alisha was deemed to be a vulnerable person. She is reported as being alcohol
dependent and therefore would have needed some support with things in her daily life.
When she hadn't been seen by her family at the beginning of February, they
believed it was time to contact police. Police were also worried about her whereabouts
and began trying to track down where she could have been in the days and
weeks before she was reported missing. Unlike in some missing person investigations, police
were able to trace some of Alisha's movements through CCTV, and this is how
police have come up with three important dates that they have since appealed about.
The first date that police have pinpointed is the fourteenth of January twenty twenty two,
a few weeks before Alicia was reported missing. On this date, she
was seen traveling as a passenger in a VW Gold passack car. The car
traveled north to the area of bishop Auckland in County Durham, around one hundred
and twenty four miles and just over two hour journey from Ashton under Lyne.
The driver of this car as a male. It reported that the car was
very distinctive and was registered in two thousand and three. The next important date
was January seventeenth, three days after she was last seen traveling up to County
Durham. There were a few sightings of Alicia that day on CCTV, and
this day was also the last date the police could see that her bank card
was used. The CCTV footage has been described as showing Galicia and a male
walking around a supermarket together. The footage shows Alicia carrying a green basket and
looking at the isles with the man. The man is seen wearing a face
mask and a hat. The pair browsed the aisle together and then walk During
this journey to the supermarket, Alicia makes a transaction on her bank card.
It has not been revealed what it was that she bought that day, where
the supermarket was located, or who the man in the CCTV footage could be.
Is reported that they are seen leaving the shop together and that Alisha is
spotted carrying a bag. This footage does, however, show her clearly.
Three days after she had last been traced, there was another sighting of her
on CCTV that day when the car stopped for petrol at a petrol station.
The man is seen getting out of the car and filling it up with petrol,
while Alisha is shown sitting in the passenger seat of the same vw psat
Later on that day, on the seventeenth of January, the car is picked
up on CCTV again, and this time it's traveling to Sunderland Bridge in the
Croxdale area of Durham, and police have stated that they know at this point
she is a liar and well. Detective Inspector Andrew Naysmith stated about the evidence
that they do have at this point, saying she's actually in a supermarket and
she actually uses her bank card on this date. This is the last official
transaction we have of Aalisia using anything to do with her bank account. We
know that later this day she travels to Sunderland Bridge in the Crocksdale area of
Durham, so we know at this point she is alive and well. The
footage also captured them leaving the store together with Alisha carrying a bag. The
last date of relevance to the investigation is January twenty second, another five days
after Alisha had been spotted on CCTV. That day, Alisha was spotted again
traveling as a passenger in the vw pisap, but this time the car was
picked up traveling to the Glossop and Chapel on the Frith area of Derbyshire.
This, however, was where Alisha's trail went off. They knew that between
January fourteenth and the twenty second, Alisha was alive and seemingly well. However,
from this point they could find no trace of her through bank records or
through other CCTV sightings. This was a concern for the investigation as they could
not attempt to find her whereabouts after this point. It was then eleven days
later that she was reported missing to the police by her family. Greater Manchester
Police have been very open about the fact that they do believe that Alisha could
have come to some harm, and in fact, since her disappearance, they
have elevated the missing person investigation to a murder inquiry. Police have not released
too much information in her case, and given that it's still a relatively recent
one, I'm sure this is due to the fact that it's an ongoing investigation.
It is reported that a fifteen nine year old man was arrested in March
twenty twenty two. However, he was released shortly afterwards under investigation. Another
man aged fifty has also been arrested for assisting an offender. He too was
released. While it's not known who these men were, the m e N
have reported that the fifty nine year old man may have been someone known to
Alisha through a friend of a friend. He was also known to members of
Alisha's family. This man was thought to also be from Ashton and communicated with
Alisha through texts and social media. It reported that this man moved to Bishop
Auckland, but also had some accommodation in Derbyshire. Police have said that no
further action has been taken and there is no evidence presented to state that this
man had anything to do with Alicia's disappearance. Police have confirmed that they believe
that something has happened to Alisha, saying in a statement, the missing person's
inquiry has now been an escalated to a murder inquiry because we believe Alisha has
come to significant harm. Given that Alisha was last seen in Derbyshire. They
are appealing for anyone in that area to come forward. February twenty twenty three
marked a year since Alisha had been reported missing, and GMP appealed for any
information and presented CCTV images as well as photographs of Alisha. They stated during
this appeal a year has passed now and still Alisha has not been seen by
family, of friends and loved ones, and as the investigation continues, it's
believes that she may have come to serious harm. We need you the public
to cast your minds back to Saturday, the twenty second of January twenty twenty
two and the following days after. Did you see anything suspicious? Did you
see Alisha? Have you seen the vehicle in question? Do you know where
that vehicle went? Did you witness any suspicious activity on nearby lanes or land.
We are also appealing to the rural communities of Derbyshire, in particular around
Glossop, Buxton and Chapel Only Frith to come forward if you have seen anything
suspicious our vehicle's trespatting on private land around these dates. If you are around
the Glossop, Chapel Only Frith or Books and areas of Derbyshire, please contact
police immediately. If you know anything, no matter how small or insignificant it
may seem, it may be the missing piece we need in our investigation to
find Alisha. We are looking for CCTV dashcam footage, images or any accounts
of suspicious behavior around that date, as this will bring us one step closer
to finding Alisha and help us understand what has happened to her. They have
also expressed that Alicia's family are desperate for answers and they want to know where
she is and what has happened to her. DCI Andrew Naysmith explained, we
want to keep Alisha in people's memories and we want to recover Alisha for her
family. If not, we want to try and bring some sort of closure
and peace to the family and hopefully some sort of justice for the family.
This is what everyone hopes for in missing person cases, and particularly in these
cases that are this recent, there is hope that someone will know something and
provide some information about Alisha's disappearance. If you do know anything, please call
one oh one or use gmp's Major Incident portal to upload footage and information.
I will link this in the show notes. Thank you for listening to episode
nine of our twelve Days of Missing Person episodes throughout December. Listen in to
episode ten when it comes out. If you'd like to support the podcast further
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subscribe on YouTube and follow us on social media as our ways. I'm Caprice
and this has been unseen