Ruth Wilson was just 16-years-old when she mysteriously vanished and nearly 30 years on, her friend Catherine Mair remains desperate to find her. Back in late November 1995, the teenager was seen hailing a taxi Dorking railway station in Surrey and being dropped off at a remote woodland area. The taxi driver, who has never been named, said Ruth was wearing suitable clothes for the chilly, wet weather and stood stock still as she watched him drive away.
This was the last sighting of Ruth, who Catherine describes as "bright, interesting and funny". Catherine's daughter is now the same age as Ruth when she disappeared and there is one thing she would love more then anything. "I find it hard to believe she took her own life but also that she managed to start a new life," said Catherine. "What I do know is that I would love nothing more than for Ruth to just suddenly walk back into our lives.".
When the teenager failed to return home, her schoolteacher father Ian and his primary school deputy head wife Karen Bowerman reported her missing. Surrey Police launched a huge search across 1,000 acres of parkland, involving dog teams, heat-seeking equipment and a helicopter. "I always thought it was odd that they launched such a huge search so quickly," Catherine told The Daily Mail. "Teenagers fail to come home all the time. It made me wonder what they thought they knew.".
Ruth had been doing well at school and had wholesome hobbies outside of it, such as bellringing. She was considering studying archaeology at university and had everything to live for. But behind the teenager's respectable upbringing lay heartbreaking tragedy. Ruth always thought that her mother Nesta had died in a freak accident when she was just three. Her dad Ian told her she had tripped at the top of the stairs and broke her neck.
But before she went missing, Ruth reportedly obtained a copy of her mother's death certificate which revealed her death was not an accident. Instead, she had taken her own life. Catherine says learning this devastating fact left her friend "distressed" and a month before vanished, the teenager reportedly ran away from home. "Sadly, Ruth seemed convinced she was responsible," said Catherine. "She believed it was one of her toys that her mum had tripped over.".
