By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
OVER the phone, Tracey Harris sounds exhausted.
It’s late in the afternoon and she and her partner Kim Whitehouse are returning home on the train after spending another day looking for their missing 14-year-old daughter.
It’s more than two weeks since Jade Robson-Whitehouse disappeared without a trace from her Junction Village home about 8pm on Saturday 3 October.
Step-mum, Tracey, and father, Kim, are desperate for any sign she’s okay.
Speaking on Monday (19 October), Tracey said there had been no communication from Jade since she contacted a friend through Facebook about two days after she disappeared.
This social media contact was confirmed by police earlier this month.
Her parents have reason to believe Jade could be anywhere from Dandenong to Traralgon and have plastered posters throughout the state’s south east including at the Pakenham skate park, as they desperately cling to hope of finding her.
As the 16th day of her disappearance drew to a close, Tracey told Star News she and Kim feared for their daughter’s safety, after she left without money or a phone.
“We’re looking for her constantly, booking into motels, following every possible lead … ” Tracey said.
“We’re beside ourselves – we can’t sleep, can’t eat – when you do go to sleep, it’s like an hour at a time.
“Then you’re back up and back on the job …
“We will not stop looking until we find her and know she’s safe.”
On the night she went missing Jade had invited another girl to her Junction Village house to sleepover, someone her parents had never met before.
It is believed Jade had been contacting the girl through social media.
That same night Tracey went to put on a pair of shoes and when she returned to the room where the two girls had been, they were gone.
“She (the friend) said can we go and pick her up because her mum couldn’t bring her and Kim went and picked her up,” Tracey told reporters earlier this month.
“And on the way Jade said, which was another thing out of character, we’ve got to pick her up from Cranbourne station. Well Jade’s not allowed to catch trains and we communicate with parents when we’re having sleepovers and he picked the girl up and brought her back to the house.
“I asked for her mum’s number to communicate with her, she said her phone was flat so I charged her phone and then when the phone was charged she said my mum’s number’s missing.
“And I said well I need to drive you home to your mum now … to let your mum know you’re safe.
“So I went to get my shoes on and when I got back they were all gone.”
The girls fled out the bedroom window and the dress Jade had been wearing was left on the floor.
More information can be found on a Facebook page set up by the family, at www.facebook.com/FINDJADEWHITEHOUSE.
Anyone who sees Jade is urged to call triple-zero immediately, or contact Narre Warren police station on 9705 3111 or Cranbourne police station on 5991 0600.
