30-year-old Georgina Gharsallah, aka George, literally vanished from the shopping streets of Worthing, Sussex, England on March 7th 2018. Where she went or what has become of her is a mystery.
Where is Georgina Gharsallah who was aged 30 when she was last seen
Georgina was born in Brighton, Sussex on 20th October 1987. Her mother is Andrea and is English, whilst her father is Gassem and he is Libyan.
There are four daughters in the family of which Georgina (George) is the second eldest. The family spent around nine years in Libya afterGina was born before returning to Worthing in 1998. Gina’s parents eventually divorced and the girls remained living with their mother.
George seems to be an intelligent young woman and although she drank alcohol and cannabis there doesn’t seem to be an indication of any addiction as such. It is apparent that she suffered from mental health conditions. George has been considered unreliable and struggles to stay in relationships or maintain a job for very long.
At the time of her disappearance, Georgina had recently split with her partner and was unemployed. She had moved back to live with her mum after the relationship ended, although she and the estranged partner had remained friends, She has two children, both boys from a previous relationship.
None of the backgrounds seems to suggest that there would be any reason for Georgina to “run away”. She had her mum, her sisters, her sons and a home to live in, so what has happened to her?
The Gharsallah family gathered to appeal for the return of Georgina
George left her mother’s house on March 7th 2018 at around 9.30 am after borrowing some money from her mum. She headed into Worthing town saying that she was having problems with her mobile phone, so she would go to the shop and then visit the Job Centre before meeting with her dad later in the morning.
As far as I am able to ascertain at this stage, George only went to one shop, a general store, Clifton Food & Wine in Clifton Road where she was captured on CCTV at approximately 9.50 am. She apparently spoke to the shop manager about her mobile phone but he simply directed her to the local phone repair shops and she left.
There is no evidence to suggest that George actually visited any other shops. She did not visit the Job Centre nor did she meet her father so it would seem this 30-year-old woman blatantly “vanished in thin air”, with no signs of any struggles or disturbance in Worthing at the relevant times.
When police undertook a cell site analysis of Georgina's mobile telephone it showed that the last time the handset was used was 3 am on the day that she vanished and although the phone line disconnected from the network at approximately 11.30 am. Interestingly the phone has never been located and was never reconnected to a network.
A clear and important indication from the phone cell site analysis shows that the phone remained connected to the same mast until 11.30 am so this at least seems to suggest that Georgina was in the same area until at least that time.
CCTV footage of what is believed to be Georgina with an unidentified person, who is that?
CCTV has been shown of a person who may well have been Georgina but no one can be certain. If it was her then she is seen walking with another person whom I would say was a female.
If one of the people pictured is not Georgina, then who is it? Do you recognise the people? Was it you walking in Worthing on March 7th 2018? If so then please contact Sussex Police and let them know.
Missing
Georgina’s mother did not worry when she failed to return home later on the 7th of March, she knew her daughter often stayed with friends and was still involved with her recent ex-partner. It was only when her daughter did not make the usual arrangements to see her sons the following weekend and her former partner said that he had not heard from her.
It was then that Andrea Gharshallah began to look for Georgina and eventually called the police on March 17th 2018 and officially reported her daughter missing.
I have had some communication with Andrea and she has kindly given me a little better understanding of the case but even with my years of experience, I really find the case confusing.
How a young woman of 30 can have literally walked out of a shop and vanished without a trace is beyond me. In fairness, many people do go missing every day but most are located within 24 hours or so. Sadly not all are located and this includes Georgina.
A mother’s story
Georgina’s mother, Andrea says that she last saw her daughter between 0730 and 0745 on the morning of 7th March 2018. Her daughter had been sitting on the floor doing her hair and Andrea was getting ready to leave for work.
George had told her mum that her mobile phone was not working and so Andrea gave her daughter her own handset to get a sim card for it. This is where the whole story of George visiting a mobile phone shop came from.
George had borrowed a couple of pounds from her mum and then Andrea left for work. The pair said “goodbye and see you later” and that was the last time George’s mother would see her.
George had spent most of the week leading up to her disappearance at her ex-partner’s house so Andrea was not too concerned when George did not return that evening, she assumed that was where her daughter was.
Andrea says that she did not really think much of the situation or indeed realise that anything was untoward for the first few days, George was not the sort of girl to message regularly so her mum and sisters assumed she was with her ex.
After a few days had passed Andrea received a message from George’s ex-partner asking if she had heard from her daughter, that’s when they all began to realise something was wrong. Andrea had said that she thought her daughter was with him but he confirmed he had not seen George for 10 days.
By the time George was reported to the police as a missing person, she had been gone for 10 days. The family had left it for a few days, assuming that George would just turn up, something which Andrea says she now regrets.
Andrea says that for the first six months of her daughter being missing the family had regular contact with the police bit as time wore on the communications became less and less frequent.
Andrea’s words:
We’d email the police and they’d say they would contact us if they had anything new. Even if they didn’t have anything, they should have been updating us regularly. After six months they gave us a family liaison officer. The police said we were taking up too much of the team’s time by emailing — but it was three or four emails a week. I thought the family liaison officer would be easier to contact but it was harder because there were two of them and their shifts were unpredictable.
Time has passed and now it seems the case has ground to a halt, no new leads, nothing, but why? This adult woman cannot have simply vanished from a shopping street in broad daylight, it makes no sense at all.
According to her mum, Georgina is a friendly and outgoing woman, who does suffer from anxiety issues but is very outgoing especially if she has had a drink.
Conclusion
I came across this case by chance when Andrea followed me on Instagram and we talked about the case. You can follow Andrea’s campaign here https://www.instagram.com/findgeorginagharsallah/?hl=en
As many of you will know I am very passionate about unsolved and missing person cases and I will do my best to look again at this case for Andrea. I do not accept that she vanished completely and has had no contact with anyone, especially her mum and her own children.
I am aware from Andrea that some people have suggested that maybe George took off for a new life, but she must have seen the posts on social media and the news by now, surely she would have come forward, even if only to say “hello can you tell my family I am ok but do not want to come home”.
I am happy to work on the case, produce a podcast, further blogs or even a documentary if it helps Andrea to get closure and for her and the family to know what happened to Georgina.
I have no evidence at this stage to suggest that George has come to harm or is dead, except that her bank account, etc have not been touched since she went but this does not necessarily make us assume the worst.
Please if you read this, share it, spread the word as much as you can and let’s find out “What happened to Georgina Gharsallah”
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