Eddie Gibson Missing

[pautai]

Monday, 18 April, 2005, 07:12 GMT 08:12 UK

Asia search for missing student

Eddie Gibson wrote to his mother about his plans to return home

The family of a student missing in Cambodia is enlisting the help of the father of murdered Lucie Blackman.

Eddie Gibson, 20, from Brighton, was three weeks into a course at Leeds University last year when he decided to leave and go travelling in Asia.

He has not been heard from since e-mailing his mother on 24 October.

Now his parents, Mike and Jo Gibson, are being helped by Tim Blackman, who searched for his daughter Lucie when she disappeared in Japan.

The last reported sighting of Eddie was in Phnom Penh, on 23 October, by a Cambodian girl known as Ami who had a holiday romance with him.

He e-mailed his mother the day after, saying he was sorry about leaving university and that he was "really looking forward to coming home" on a flight he had booked.

But he did not appear when his family went to meet him off the plane, which left Bangkok, Thailand, on 1 November.

Despite extensive inquiries, including trips to Cambodia, the Gibsons have been unable to find their son.

Lucie Blackman, a former flight attendant from Sevenoaks, Kent, went missing in Tokyo in July 2000.

Her father Tim searched for her in Japan until her body was found in a cave seven months later.

The Gibson family contacted Mr Blackman through his missing youngsters website, safetytext.com.

An appeal to backpackers and tourists who have visited Cambodia will be made on Monday at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton.

The Gibsons are also setting up a hotline in Cambodia.

source: BBC.CO.UK