Mother's hope for missing backpacker

Eva Ratnasothy said not knowing what happened to Alex was awful

The mother an Essex backpacker who has been missing for a year said she believes her son will be found.

Alex Ratnasothy, 24, was last seen in Nepal, heading for the foothills of the Himalayas, in February last year.

His mother Eva is now planning to help with the search for her son by flying out to Nepal next week - and she is convinced he will be found, even if he is already dead.

Alex, a computer software engineer from Grays, left Essex to travel in April 2002 but was last heard from in an e-mail on 21 February 2003.

Passport found

He had been planning to head from Jiri to the Everest Base Camp on the first leg of a mountain trek in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Mrs Ratnasothy told BBC Essex it had been a terrible time for her whole family.

"I am sure he is there somewhere and I know he will still be found, whether he is alive or not," she said.

"The real problem is just not knowing what's happened to him, it's really awful."

In November Alex's sister Dr Anna Ratnasothy flew to Nepal to try and find her brother.

She established Alex had been robbed of some of his possessions but his passport had been left at a travel agency in Kathmandu where he applied for a visa to visit Tibet.