Phone clue in missing Kate search

Ms Osborne was last seen on 19 April 2003

Police want to trace an unknown person who was contacted by Cumbrian woman Kate Osborne just before she disappeared in Bali.

Ms Osborne, 35, from Head's Nook, near Carlisle, made contact with the mystery individual in the early hours of 19 April, 2003, just two hours after the last known sighting of her.

There have been no sightings of Ms Osborne, who worked as an aid worker and translator, since she dropped off a Dutch friend early that morning.

Police revealed on Wednesday that shortly before she vanished she repeatedly contacted someone on a pay-as-you-go phone.

Speaking to the media, Detective Chief Inspector Bill Whitehead, who spent two weeks on Bali in June, said: "Officers have examined Kate's itemised phone bill, which shows her last phone call was at 4.14am.

"Police in Indonesia are looking to contact the holder of that phone that Kate phoned. She also made several text messages to the same number earlier in the evening."

Professional surfer

He said tracing the phone holder would be a long task for Indonesian police, who are leading the hunt for Ms Osborne, because almost all phones in Bali are pay-as-you-go.

Detectives had also been unable to find out what the text messages had said because of the time that had elapsed.

Police had been looking for missing woman's boyfriend Jose Henricci, but it has now emerged that he has been in a jail in Peru for a number of weeks.

Cumbria Police revealed on Monday that the professional surfer was arrested by police in his home country less than two weeks after Ms Osborne was last seen.

However a check of travel records now show he left Bali on 30 March, and arrived in Peru on 1 April.

Teaching English

Mr Whitehead said: "We have no information to suggest he returned to Bali between April 1 and 18.

"We have been liaising with British consular authorities in Peru, and they have asked the prison service there if they can speak to Mr Henricci.

"However the Peruvian authorities want to conduct their own inquiries in relation to the matter he has been arrested for."

Cumbria Police said Mr Henricci is currently being held in custody in Puerto Maldonado, but that his arrest is not in connection to Ms Osborne's disappearance.

It is understood Mr Henricci has been arrested on drugs-related charges.

Ms Osborne lived in Bali for nearly four years, teaching English and then acting as a translator following last October's nightclub bombing.