Missing Persons Week: Families' anguish for those who didn't come home

TROUBLED Blakehurst teenager Delia Eade, 15, often ran away from home but one day she never came back.

Her mother, Barbara Eade, has waited for 24 years to find out what happened to her.

"I think the worst part is not knowing,'' Ms Eade said.

"Every time you hear on the news that a body has been found you wonder, what if?''

Delia's case is one of many that police hope to solve during national Missing Persons Week, August 1-7.

Delia was last seen at Blakehurst on January 10, 1986.

Because she was a habitual runaway, her mother and police expected her to turn up within a couple of days.

The teenager did not often turn up to class at Blakehurst High School and enjoyed time alone.

Ms Eade said she spent a year after her disappearance searching shopping malls in the hope she would see her.

She said one day she had to stop looking and be a mother to her three other daughters and son.

The mother-of-five said she thought it was unlikely that Delia was alive as she had never applied for a birth certificate or any identification.

"If she was found alive I would be very happy, even if she were dead I would still like to know where she is,'' Ms Eade said.

Details: Missing Persons Unit, 8835 7656 or missingpersons.gov.au/home/