Daughter appeals for help finding missing Briton, 72, in France
The woman left her home in Haute-Vienne without her phone, money and ID, and has not been seen since January
Stephanie Sparks Thomson (seen in inset images) often walked along forest paths around Le Chalard and Ladignac-le-Long.FACEBOOK / LAURENT CHEVALLIER - SHUTTERSTOCK
The daughter of a 72-year-old British woman has launched an appeal for information to help find her missing mother.
Stephanie Sparks Thomson disappeared from Le Chalard in the department of Haute-Vienne on the afternoon of January 29.
She is slim with grey hair and was wearing dark trousers, black or grey boots and a light blue puffer jacket (as seen in the image below) on the day she went missing, states the Gendarmerie de la Haute-Vienne and the ARPD (Assistance et Recherche de Personnes Disparues).
Ms Thomson’s husband reportedly fell asleep and when he woke, his wife had disappeared.
The couple moved from Redcar in England to France in 2012 and live in a caravan at the Les Vigères campsite. They were often seen walking along the forest paths around Le Chalard and Ladignac-le-Long.
Ms Thomson is thought to have left on foot and did not take money, a phone or ID with her.
Anyone with information is asked to call the local Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche gendarmerie on 05 55 75 00 36, or 17 in an emergency.
Search efforts
Local residents have helped gendarmes to search the area around her home, alongside sniffer dogs, divers, helicopters, drones and an underwater sonar device.
A Le Chalard resident who is friends with Stephanie and her husband made a missing person poster which has been put up in bars and restaurants in the local area.
“Spending our birthdays and Mother's day without you, not knowing where you are, has been so hard. I still feel you may be somewhere and would ask again for you to get in touch. I don't want you to give me an explanation or your location if you'd rather not. I just need to know you are safe,” Ms Thomson’s daughter, Tracy, wrote in a Facebook post.
Tracy has launched several appeals on social media and travels between England and France every two weeks to help with search efforts, and to visit her father who has since been hospitalised with lung cancer.
Tracy and her mother StephanieTracy Thomson
Members of the online community MotorhomeFun have been sharing updates and messages of support on a dedicated forum. Jim Brown, the founder of the platform, set up a Gofundme page which has raised £3,728 at the time of writing.
"We cannot search the hills of the Haute-Vienne for Steph - but we can make sure that the person who is doing everything she can, does not also have to worry about the cost of doing it," said Mr Brown.
