Karen Matthew's theory

Mar 12 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SHANNON Matthews’s mother believes someone she knows has snatched her daughter to hurt her.

But Karen Matthews said she did not know who could have taken the shy nine-year-old.

Mrs Matthews, 32, said she was convinced that Shannon was abducted after returning from a school swimming trip in Dewsbury on February 19.

“She got abducted. That’s all I can say,” she said.

Asked if she thought it was someone she knew who took her the mother-of-seven said: “It seems that way because there’s no trace of her at all. There’s no trace of her swimming costume, her towel or anything like that that she’s taken with her.”

Asked why someone close to her would do it Mrs Matthews replied: “Just to hurt me, really.”

But when pressed on who might be behind the abduction she said: “No idea at all. All my friends and family have all been checked and there are no sightings of her things there at all.”