Poster appeal to find prostitute

Ms Wilson has not been seen for four weeks

More than 400 posters are being put up around Middlesbrough by police to help trace a missing prostitute.

Nineteen-year-old Rachel Wilson has not been since last month.

Ms Wilson is the third prostitute to go missing from the town in the last four years.

The teenager, who was last seen at 2330 BST on 30 May, turned to prostitution to feed her heroin addiction.

No leads

Since she disappeared she has had no contact at all with her family or friends.

Appeals for help have resulted in numerous calls to a police incident room, but detectives still have no firm leads.

The majority of the posters, which show a colour photograph of Rachel, are concentrated around shops, cafes, and pubs in the Woodlands and Southfield Road areas.

Officers also plan to speak to people who use the services of prostitutes.

The teenager, who lives in Grove Hill, turned to prostitution about 18 months after becoming hooked on drugs.

Ms Wilson is 5ft 5in tall, with blue eyes and long brown hair.

Previous murder

She was last seen wearing a cream padded jacket with a hood, a white top, three-quarter-length trousers and blue suede shoes.

Police have said the youngster's disappearance is out of character and have urged her to contact themselves or police.

Another prostitute, 17-year-old Donna Keogh, vanished from Hartington Road in Middlesbrough in April 1998, after reports she was seen getting into a red hatchback car.

Her disappearance was re-examined after 21-year-old prostitute Vicky Glass was murdered in 2000.