Georgina Gharsallah (born 29 October 1987) is an English woman who went missing after leaving her mother's house in Worthing, West Sussex, on 7 March 2018.
Background
Georgina Gharsallah was born in Brighton, Sussex in 1987. Her parents were Andrea and Gassem Gharsallah. Gassem was a Libyan who attended university in Brighton where he met Andrea who was English. The couple had four daughters of whom Georgina ('Gina') was the second eldest. Shortly after Georgina was born the family relocated to Libya where they lived until 1998. Gharsallah spoke Arabic. After returning to the UK the family settled in Worthing where Andrea found employment in a local convent caring for elderly nuns. She became estranged from her husband and the couple divorced. By 2018 Gassem was managing director of a small food company based in Worthing. He later remarried. The four daughters including Georgina remained with their mother.
While Gharsallah was considered intelligent and articulate, she developed an itinerant lifestyle as an adult. She drank alcohol and smoked cannabis. It was reported that she suffered from mental health issues including bulimia and social anxiety. She was considered unreliable by some people who knew her. At the time of her disappearance she was unemployed and was recently estranged from a partner. She had two children by an earlier partner. Gharsallah had moved back in with her mother although she was still meeting her most recent former partner regularly. She would sometimes stay with friends in Brighton.
Disappearance
Last known movements
Gharsallah left her mother's house on Wednesday 7 March 2018 at around 9:30am. She told her mother that she was having problems with her mobile phone and that she would visit a phone store to seek advice. She also stated that she would visit the Jobcentre Plus in Worthing town centre and would meet her father later in the morning. She asked for and received a small loan from her mother to pay the cost of repairing the phone. She was recorded on CCTV at around 9:50am entering the nearby Clifton Food and Wine shop in Clifton Road, Worthing. The shop manager would later state that Gharsallah had asked him for help with her phone and that he had directed her to a speciality phone store. Gharsallah left the shop and that was the last certain sighting of her. She did not visit the local Jobcentre and did not keep her appointment with her father. There is no record or recollection of her entering any of the phone stores in Worthing that day. Subsequent tracking of her mobile phone indicated its last use at 3am on the day and that it had left the network shortly after 11:30am while still connected to a local mast in Worthing. It never reconnected to the network. Gharsalla's bank accounts and bank cards were never used again.
Reported missing
Andrea was not initially disturbed when Gharsallah did not return to her house later that day since she was familiar with her daughter's lifestyle. She assumed that Gharsallah had either had gone to stay with friends or had returned to her ex-partner. It was only the following week that Andrea became alarmed. Gharsallah failed to make arrangements to host her two sons for the weekend as was normal. Her ex-partner telephoned to say that he had not heard from Gharsallah for some days and was concerned about her. Andrea spent several days attempting to contact her daughter without success. She finally contacted Sussex Police on Saturday 17 March 2018 to report Gharsallah as a missing person.
Investigation
Progress of the enquiry
The Sussex Police investigation of Gharsallah's disappearance was significantly slow to get started. In recent years an average of around 350,000 people per year are reported missing in England and Wales. The large majority of these cases are quickly resolved when the missing person reappears or is traced. Police do not prioritise cases where the missing person is not vulnerable and where there is no evidence of violence. The homes of Gharsallah's mother Andrea and ex-partners were searched and checks were initiated on her mobile phone and bank accounts. CCTV recordings from the immediate vicinity of Andrea's house were checked and this disclosed the recording of Gharsallah at a shop in Clifton Road. A public appeal for information was made. After three weeks the disappearance was considered suspicious and the investigation was upgraded. However, it made little progress. Various theories for Gharsallah's disappearance were considered including :