Ref. 29461-08THE parents of missing teenager Joanna Ludlow fear she could be lying dead just like tragic Highworth girl Kate Walsh whose body was found in a seedy town centre squat.

Joanna, 15, has disappeared from home. She is known to take drugs and has a boyfriend more than twice her age.

Hers is a case that almost mirrors Kate's. Now Joanna's distraught parents, police, social services, and even the Walshes, are appealing for help in finding the schoolgirl before it's too late.

They need to know that she's safe, well and not in any danger.

No one wants to see another young life ended in squalor and drugs.

The 15-year-old Hreod Parkway pupil has gone missing for the fifth time in sixth months and her mother, Christine, says her greatest fear is that her daughter is lying dead somewhere in a chilling repeat of the last days of Highworth teenager Kate Walsh.

Joanna vanished on Monday having spent the previous night with temporary foster carers arranged through Swindon social services.

She normally lives with her father Graham in Park North.

Mrs Ludlow, 44, said it worries her to think her daughter, who celebrates her 16th birthday in two weeks, is mixing with people twice her age and possibly involved in the town's growing drugs culture.

She said: "Joanna has told me she has taken drugs and that frightens me I'm petrified she could become the next Kate Walsh. The family has done everything possible for her, but she is not a happy girl.

"She should be at school because she has got exams. I'm worried and scared when it's night time and gets dark and cold because I don't know what she is doing.

"It's her 16th soon and we've made plans for her. I was going to take her shopping and buy her lots of new clothes and organise a big party. We are all worried and love her she just doesn't realise how much."

Mrs Ludlow split up with Joanna's father eight years ago and the couple sold the family house in Peatmoor.

Although Mrs Ludlow, who now lives in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, insists the break up of her marriage has nothing to do with Joanna's current problems, she says her daughter hates living in Park North.

And she believes it was while living on the estate that Joanna met an older man, who she now spends a great deal of time with. Just before Christmas she fell pregnant, but had a termination in the New Year.

Joanna's father, Graham, 60, of Kingswood Avenue, Park North, said he feels he is not fully able to control Joanna as he suffers from MS.

He said: "She is only 15 years old and this bloke she is seeing is something like 32. I only found out on Sunday that she was pregnant last year. I don't know where she is or what I can do to get her back. I'm just sick with worry.

"As far as I know this bloke she is seeing is saying he loves her. Maybe she is getting something that the family can't give her, but I don't know what that is.

"I've tried grounding her and giving her a bit more freedom and that worked for a while, but now she has gone again. She has got her exams coming up and should be at school yet I haven't got a clue where she is.

"She could be getting pregnant again or taking drugs I just don't know, but I wish I did. I just want my original daughter back."

Giles Sheldrick