Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. This is episode nine of twelve missing person episodes throughout December. Today we're going to be looking at the disappearance of Alisha Apostolof by Arn in January twenty twenty two. Her disappearance is quite a recent one and any appeals for information may well be helpful, and so I wanted to include it in my twelve Days episode. This episode is
about a missing person and does not contain any graphic descriptions. However, it does reference alcohol dependency and so listener discretion is always advised. On Wednesday, the second of February twenty twenty two, a report came in to Greater Manchester Police about a missing twenty four year old woman. The woman was Alicia apostle of by Aarn and she was reported missing by her grandmother. Her grandmother hadn't seen her and she was worried about her welfare given that she didn't know where
she was. Greater Manchester Police immediately began a missing person investigation and tried to track down where she could be. Alicia had been living in the area of Ashton under Lyne, which is a market town located in Tameside, around six miles east of Manchester City Center. It reported that Alicia lived with her great grandfather in Ashton Underlyine, but that she was also extremely close to her grandmother, which is why this was who reported her missing and had noticed her absence.
There isn't much published about Alicia's childhood and life at the time that she disappeared. It is known, however, that the investigation was launched quickly as Alisha was deemed to be a vulnerable person. She is reported as being alcohol dependent and therefore would have needed some support with things in her daily life. When she hadn't been seen by her family at the beginning of February, they
believed it was time to contact police. Police were also worried about her whereabouts and began trying to track down where she could have been in the days and weeks before she was reported missing. Unlike in some missing person investigations, police were able to trace some of Alisha's movements through CCTV, and this is how police have come up with three important dates that they have since appealed about.
The first date that police have pinpointed is the fourteenth of January twenty twenty two, a few weeks before Alicia was reported missing. On this date, she was seen traveling as a passenger in a VW Gold passack car. The car traveled north to the area of bishop Auckland in County Durham, around one hundred and twenty four miles and just over two hour journey from Ashton under Lyne. The driver of this car as a male. It reported that the car was
very distinctive and was registered in two thousand and three. The next important date was January seventeenth, three days after she was last seen traveling up to County Durham. There were a few sightings of Alicia that day on CCTV, and this day was also the last date the police could see that her bank card was used. The CCTV footage has been described as showing Galicia and a male walking around a supermarket together. The footage shows Alicia carrying a green basket and
looking at the isles with the man. The man is seen wearing a face mask and a hat. The pair browsed the aisle together and then walk During this journey to the supermarket, Alicia makes a transaction on her bank card. It has not been revealed what it was that she bought that day, where the supermarket was located, or who the man in the CCTV footage could be. Is reported that they are seen leaving the shop together and that Alisha is
spotted carrying a bag. This footage does, however, show her clearly. Three days after she had last been traced, there was another sighting of her on CCTV that day when the car stopped for petrol at a petrol station.
The man is seen getting out of the car and filling it up with petrol, while Alisha is shown sitting in the passenger seat of the same vw psat Later on that day, on the seventeenth of January, the car is picked up on CCTV again, and this time it's traveling to Sunderland Bridge in the Croxdale area of Durham, and police have stated that they know at this point
she is a liar and well. Detective Inspector Andrew Naysmith stated about the evidence that they do have at this point, saying she's actually in a supermarket and she actually uses her bank card on this date. This is the last official transaction we have of Aalisia using anything to do with her bank account. We know that later this day she travels to Sunderland Bridge in the Crocksdale area of Durham, so we know at this point she is alive and well. The
footage also captured them leaving the store together with Alisha carrying a bag. The last date of relevance to the investigation is January twenty second, another five days after Alisha had been spotted on CCTV. That day, Alisha was spotted again traveling as a passenger in the vw pisap, but this time the car was picked up traveling to the Glossop and Chapel on the Frith area of Derbyshire. This, however, was where Alisha's trail went off. They knew that between
January fourteenth and the twenty second, Alisha was alive and seemingly well. However, from this point they could find no trace of her through bank records or through other CCTV sightings. This was a concern for the investigation as they could not attempt to find her whereabouts after this point. It was then eleven days
later that she was reported missing to the police by her family. Greater Manchester Police have been very open about the fact that they do believe that Alisha could have come to some harm, and in fact, since her disappearance, they have elevated the missing person investigation to a murder inquiry. Police have not released too much information in her case, and given that it's still a relatively recent one, I'm sure this is due to the fact that it's an ongoing investigation.
It is reported that a fifteen nine year old man was arrested in March twenty twenty two. However, he was released shortly afterwards under investigation. Another man aged fifty has also been arrested for assisting an offender. He too was released. While it's not known who these men were, the m e N have reported that the fifty nine year old man may have been someone known to Alisha through a friend of a friend. He was also known to members of
Alisha's family. This man was thought to also be from Ashton and communicated with Alisha through texts and social media. It reported that this man moved to Bishop Auckland, but also had some accommodation in Derbyshire. Police have said that no further action has been taken and there is no evidence presented to state that this
man had anything to do with Alicia's disappearance. Police have confirmed that they believe that something has happened to Alisha, saying in a statement, the missing person's inquiry has now been an escalated to a murder inquiry because we believe Alisha has come to significant harm. Given that Alisha was last seen in Derbyshire. They are appealing for anyone in that area to come forward. February twenty twenty three marked a year since Alisha had been reported missing, and GMP appealed for any
information and presented CCTV images as well as photographs of Alisha. They stated during this appeal a year has passed now and still Alisha has not been seen by family, of friends and loved ones, and as the investigation continues, it's believes that she may have come to serious harm. We need you the public to cast your minds back to Saturday, the twenty second of January twenty twenty two and the following days after. Did you see anything suspicious? Did you
see Alisha? Have you seen the vehicle in question? Do you know where that vehicle went? Did you witness any suspicious activity on nearby lanes or land. We are also appealing to the rural communities of Derbyshire, in particular around Glossop, Buxton and Chapel Only Frith to come forward if you have seen anything suspicious our vehicle's trespatting on private land around these dates. If you are around the Glossop, Chapel Only Frith or Books and areas of Derbyshire, please contact
police immediately. If you know anything, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, it may be the missing piece we need in our investigation to find Alisha. We are looking for CCTV dashcam footage, images or any accounts of suspicious behavior around that date, as this will bring us one step closer to finding Alisha and help us understand what has happened to her. They have also expressed that Alicia's family are desperate for answers and they want to know where
she is and what has happened to her. DCI Andrew Naysmith explained, we want to keep Alisha in people's memories and we want to recover Alisha for her family. If not, we want to try and bring some sort of closure and peace to the family and hopefully some sort of justice for the family. This is what everyone hopes for in missing person cases, and particularly in these cases that are this recent, there is hope that someone will know something and
provide some information about Alisha's disappearance. If you do know anything, please call one oh one or use gmp's Major Incident portal to upload footage and information. I will link this in the show notes. Thank you for listening to episode nine of our twelve Days of Missing Person episodes throughout December. Listen in to episode ten when it comes out. If you'd like to support the podcast further than you can on Patreon and contribute to the exclusive polls to get extra bonus
episodes every month. You can also get access to new episodes early and ad free. You can use the link in the show notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support us be reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and also just share the episodes. You can subscribe on YouTube and follow us on social media as our ways. I'm Caprice and this has been unseen