Linda Millard

Linda Millard disappeared on the morning of Friday 1 March 1996.

She was last seen when she left a friend's house in Portishead near Bristol. Her white Austin Mini Metro was found abandoned later that day in Esplanade Road, Battery Point,

It was later reported that the police had established a link between her disappearance and that of the murders of three drug dealers in Rettendon on 6 December 1995, Anthony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Anthony Rolfe.

Linda Millard's car was found on 1 March 1996 at Battery Point in Portishead on the Severn coast. It was locked and her shoes were found inside.

The police said:

It was heard that before her disappearance, that Linda Millard had told a friend about a connection between her partner and the Rettendon murders. When the police interviewed the friend, she told them that Linda Millard had left her partner following an incident on 7 December 1995 after they had watched an item on the evening news about the Rettendon murders. She said that following the news item that her partner was called and that she was locked out of their sitting room for about four hours whilst he took calls, adding that she had believed that her partner had been involved with drugs, counterfeit perfume and pornographic videos, and that he had had some knowledge about the Rettendon murders.

It was said that following that incident that Linda Millard had been so disgusted that she had left him.

It was said that Linda Millard had sought refuge at a friend’s place in mid-February 1996, having been there about three weeks before her partner found her there on 28 February 1996 and two days later she vanished.

It was further revealed that her partner had formerly been from Essex.

The police report into him said:

It was also noted that the two men convicted of the Rettendon murders had continued to maintain their innocence and that their convictions were suspected of having been due to police corruption with the inference that their real murderers had got away free.

Linda Millard had been from Swanage in Dorset.

Following her disappearance, the police carried out a reconstruction of her disappearance in which they parked a similar car in Esplanade Road and asked passers-by whether they had seen her.

A team of frogmen also searched the seafront Lake Grounds for her and a police helicopter was used to search the Woodspring coastline.

The police said:

It was thought that Linda Millard had been suffering from depression prior to her disappearance.

She was described as:

• White.
• 5ft 2in tall.
• Slim.
• Brown hair in a short bob style.
• Blue eyes.
• Wearing a navy blue and white gingham check shirt, black jeans and a black anorak with pink trim and collar.

Her disappearance was described as being out of character.

She had three children. A 24-year-old daughter at the time said:

A 51-year-old man was interviewed shortly after she vanished and his property searched, but no evidence of wrong doing was found and no charges were brought.

Linda Millard's disappearance was described as a complete mystery.