All the clues that girl, 2, kidnapped from supermarket till IS still alive – including voicemail & shock ‘confession’

THESE are all the clues that a girl kidnapped from a supermarket till on her second birthday is still alive.

Katrice Lee vanished from the shop on a British Army base in Paderborn, West Germany on November 28, 1981.

The tot lived on the base with her mum Sharon, sister Natasha and her soldier dad Richard.

She had been taken to the NAAFI supermarket as a birthday treat by Sharon, Richard and her aunt Wendy.

As Richard parked the car, Sharon and Wendy headed inside with Katrice.

The "cheeky" toddler refused to sit in a trolley and asked to be carried instead.

When they got to the checkout, Sharon suddenly remembered she needed crisps.

She headed down the aisle, assuming Katrice was following behind her.

But Katrice was left alone for for just a "matter of seconds" - and vanished without a trace.

There have been no sightings of Katrice in the 43 years since she disappeared.

Detectives re-opened the case in 2000, after new tech helped them to form an image of how Katrice might look in her twenties.

New witnesses came forward who had never been interviewed.

They included a young man who had been standing behind the Lees at the checkout, and one of the checkout women.

One woman who boyfriend at the time was in the same regiment as Katrice's father also came forward.

She said her ex had confessed to murdering a child and now lived in Northumbria.

The military police interviewed him but he denied it - and the woman who died soon after, ending the lead.

Afterwards the military police told the family they thought he was probably a fantasist.

Three possible sightings of Katrice came after her story appeared on the BBC television show Missing Live.

During the show an e-fit of the possible appearance of Katrice as a 29-year-old was shown.

An anonymous woman phoned and left a message on Richard Lee's answer machine, saying: "Look for your daughter in France".

The police took the answer machine tape away, but decided there was nothing more to it.

Richard, now 75, believes Katrice was snatched to be sold as a surrogate daughter to a childless couple.

He said Katrice could have been driven to another European country, and may have grown up thinking the couple were her real parents.

Richard, from Hartlepool, told : "Just come home - just let us know you're alive.

"We need to know that you're OK and hopefully you're living a good life.

"We aren't naive. We take the view that I could possibly be a grandparent.

"She possibly could be speaking a different language or she could be in England - we don't know."

MISSED CHANCES

Katrice and her sister Natasha were born at the Paderborn base, where Richard was stationed at the height of the Cold War.

Richard served 34 years in the King's Royal Hussars, serving seven times in Northern Ireland and becoming a sergeant major.

But he said top brass and military police failed to investigate Katrice's disappearance properly.