Who was Robert Black victim Genette Tate?

THE family of Genette Tate has been forced to endure even more heartbreak in the years since the teenager's disappearance.

Tate went missing in 1978 when she was just 13 and, although serial killer Robert Black has been linked to the crime, nobody has ever been charged with her death - and a body has never been found.

Who was Robert Black victim Genette Tate?

Genette Louise Tate was a teenager who was living in East Devon at the time she disappeared.

She was born in Somerset on May 5, 1965.

Genette was the only child of her parents, John and Sheila Tate.

John and Sheila separated when their daughter was young and John later remarried a woman named Violet.

Violet had a daughter, Tania, and the two lived with John and Genette in the village of Aylesbeare, east of Exeter. 

Genette was affectionately called "Ginny" by her family.

Her disappearance is one of Britain's most notorious and long-running missing persons case.

What happened to Genette Tate?

Genette Tate vanished while on her paper round on August 19, 1978.

She was covering the job for the usual paper boy who was on holiday.

Shortly after 3:30pm, two of Genette's friends discovered her bike lying in the middle of a path near her home with its owner nowhere to be seen.

The girls had been chatting to Genette just seven minutes before they found her bicycle - and the newspapers she had been scheduled to deliver - abandoned.

They were walking the same route as their friend on foot, while Genette was on her bike, meaning they were travelling shortly behind her.

After finding the bike the girls alerted Genette's family.

Genette was then reported missing by her father at around 5pm.

Tate's disappearance sparked a huge investigation but remains unexplained.

The possibility of a traffic accident was ruled out by police as no tyre marks were found on the road.

The crime has, however, been linked to Robert Black and Tate is believed to be the serial child-killer's first victim.

Black was convicted of the rape and murder of three young girls cross the UK in 1994.

He was sentenced to life in prison for the crimes, which had been committed in the 1980s.

Black was questioned by police in connection to Tate's disappearance after his 1990 arrest for other disappearances.

He worked as a long distance delivery driver and had carried out jobs in the Exeter area.

A witness claimed to seen a vehicle similar to the one Black used to drive at Exeter Airport on the day of Genette's disappearance but police were unable to place him in Aylesbeare.

Then, in 2011, Black was convicted for the 1981 murder of Jennifer Cardy.

A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland commented at the time on the "striking similarities" between Cardy's death and Genette's disappearance.

In 2008, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that were was insufficient evidence to charge Black with Tate's murder.

Devon and Cornwall Police reviewed the case in June 2014 and, at the time of Black's death in January 2016, they were just weeks away from filing to prosecute him.

A file was submitted in April 2016 but, due to his death, there was no posthumous decision to charge Black with Tate's murder

The case remains unsolved.

In 2017, twenty families living near where Genette was born in Somerset were sent sinister letters claiming that Genette's body was buried in one of their gardens.

Cops later said they believed the letters to be a sick hoax.

While police were unable to prosecute Black for Genette's disappearance, he was found guilty of murdering Sarah Harper, Susan Maxwell and Caroline Hogg in May 1994.

He was also convicted of Hardy's murder 30 years after committing the crime.