A new investigation has uncovered evidence that missing Australian Jenenne-Ann Allen (pictured above in her late 20s) is alive and living a secret life in London.
A new investigation has uncovered evidence that missing Australian Jenenne-Ann Allen (pictured above in her late 20s) is alive and living a secret life in London.
By Marnie O'Neill
When Jenenne-Ann Allen set off for London to work as a nanny back in 1998, Margaret Law was proud and excited for her only daughter.
What Ms Law could not know as she bid the bubbly 24-year-old goodbye was that it would be the last time shewould ever see her in the flesh again.
On September 17, 2003, as Ms Allen's four-year ancestry working visa was coming to an end, the young Aussie mysteriously vanished, leaving her family shattered and confused.
Jenenne-Ann Allen pictured while working as an nanny in 2001.
Ms Allen was last seen moving out of the South Croydon house she shared with her friend Sarah and Sarah's family.
Before she left, she wrote Sarah's phone number down on a piece of paper and then seemingly dropped off the face of the earth.
British police advised Ms Law and her son - Jenenne-Ann's brother - against travelling to London to look for her themselves, condemning them to years in limbo on the other side of the world.
In 2004, the family asked the Salvation Army to try track Ms Allen down but the charity - which has developed a reputation for tracking down missing people over the years - failed to locate her.
As the years rolled by with no word from Ms Allen and no sightings from witnesses, Ms Law refused to believe her daughter was dead.
"I have always had this feeling about Jenenne-Ann, I've always known in my heart that she's still alive," Ms Law told news.com.au from her Perth home.
Fifteen years later, Ms Law's maternal instincts have been proven correct after a new investigation uncovered evidence her daughter is alive and living a secret life in London.
The probe, completed by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) in April, established that Ms Allen had been working at a Kilburn taxi company as recently as 2015.
The last known photograph of Jenenne-Ann Allen, taken by her former flatmate Sarah while the pair shared a flat in 2003.
The NCA believes she held the job - which involved fielding calls and dispatching cabs - for around nine years before moving on. Unfortunately, the agency has since lost track of her whereabouts, sparking a renewed appeal for information.
"When I got that call I was excited that they'd actually found her this time, that there was concrete evidence she was alive but of course by the time they caught up with her, she had already moved on," Ms Law said.
The mystery of why her daughter apparently orchestrated her own disappearance haunts Ms Law.
However she believes (Ms Allen's former flatmate) Sarah's accounts of her daughter's behaviour in the weeks before she moved out contain crucial clues.
"(Sarah) mentioned some things that made me think Jenenne may have been having some sort of breakdown.
"Sarah said she had been a bit scatty and had lost her passport and her phone. They seem like small things but they were so unlike Jenenne, who never drank and was always a very honest person. She's not a scatty person so for her to keep losing things, or forgetting things, is really unlike her, it's really out of character."
Investigators have established that Ms Allen worked as a nanny and an events security guard in London before landing long-term employment in the taxi industry, where she worked in administration.
It is unclear how Ms Allen, who does not have British citizenship, has managed to live and work in London undetected by authorities for so many years.
Jenenne-Ann Allen hams it up in the kitchen in this 1999 photograph.
"I don't know why she disappeared but she must have her reasons," Ms Allen told news.com.au.
"It's a hard subject in the family and her brother is still very angry at her. I don't talk about Jenenne to anybody except my young grandchildren. I want them to know about their Aunty Jenenne and what a lovely and intelligent young woman she was.
"She loved children. I could not imagine her not having children and sometimes I picture her with her own family but who know, perhaps it turned out to be the case that she could not have them."
Ms Law said while it was devastating to learn her daughter had vanished again after her nine-year stint at the Kilburn taxi company, she was confident they would reunite one day.
In the meantime she has a message for Ms Allen, whom she hopes will somehow get to read this article.
"We've been told that the longer you stay out of contact the harder it is to get in contact but please remember Jenenne, that we will always love you and we'll always keep looking for you," Ms Law said.
"We just want to know that you're fine and happy and you have two nieces and a nephew who would dearly love to meet you."
