The sister of Lorraine Freeman, pictured, has spoken to Metro about her mission to find answers (Picture: Family handout)
‘It’s like living with a cut which will never heal,’ Toni Freeman says when talking about her sister, Lorraine, who disappeared 26 years ago in 1998.
‘Like lots of siblings, we bickered when we were younger. But we grew really close as we got older, like two peas in a pod.
‘She’s missed out on so much since she vanished.’
Lorraine, Toni and their brother Peter were brought up in a three-bedroom house in Carnwadric, a neighbourhood in Glasgow. The siblings rode bikes, played games like Monopoly and watched films together and with local kids.
Parents Anthony, a mechanical fitter, and Phyllis, a care worker, had met while working in the RAF. The Freemans, of Jamaican heritage, were one of a handful of families of colour in the Carnwadric area and supported each other in the rare instances they faced racist abuse. But, for the most part, their life in Scotland was positive.
‘It was a nice, close community where we growed up,’ Toni tells Metro. ‘Lorraine was the oldest and born in 1963. She and I had some of those typical teenage sister battles, like when I pinched her clothes or things like that. She was quite shy at school and struggled a bit because she was dyslexic. Lorraine left school at 16 and really came out of her shell when she began to work. She was a lot happier and had a lot of friends.’
Lorraine Freeman was 35 when she went missing in 1998 (Picture: Family handout)
Lorraine worked at the local Holiday Inn and worked hard, saving up her wages. The sisters, in search of new adventures, both moved to England in their early twenties. Toni headed to the Lake District to work in a hotel while Lorraine relocated to St John’s Wood in London for her job.
Despite the 300-mile distance, the pair remained close.
‘We called on the landline every week or two to catch-up,’ Toni recalls. ‘Lorraine was dyslexic so learning a bit more about reading and writing. She really enjoyed it and seemed to be coming into her own.
‘It was around then she met her boyfriend, Philip. They both moved in together, into a flat in Essex. As far as I was aware, they were quite happy.’
Lorraine and Phillip’s flat was in Purfleet, Essex – just a few minutes from the local train station.
Lorraine vanished from Purfleet (also known as Purfleet-on-Thames) in Essex (Picture: Metro graphics)
‘It was the type of place I’d never thought Lorraine would have lived,’ Toni continues. ‘It was a very small rented room above an Indian takeaway. I was making good money from work at the time so said, “look, I can lend you some money if you want to move somewhere bigger. Why are you here?”
‘Lorraine was always very tidy and precise, so it just felt such a strange place for her to live. But she showed me her bank balance and said she did have …read more
Source:: Metro
