Nurse hunt police go to Ecuador

Jennifer Pope left for her trip last September

Police officers from Greater Manchester are flying out to Ecuador to help with the search for the missing nurse Jennifer Pope.

Mrs Pope, 50, from Mossley, who travelled to South America alone, has not been in contact with her family since 9 January.

Her bank account has been emptied and she failed to board her flight home from Quito last week.

Three officers are flying out to help the Ecuadorian authorities on Tuesday.

Concern for Mrs Pope, who is married with a son, has grown since the discovery her bank account was overdrawn to its limits between 10 and 16 January.

What police say were "irregular transactions" began the day after her last e-mail to her family.

Last e-mail

GMP were monitoring whether she turned up for her planned flight to Madrid, and then on to Manchester.

In her last e-mail Mrs Pope, known as Jen, had indicated to husband David, 57, and son Stefan, 22, that she would like to return home earlier.

Det Supt Kevin Duffy, from GMP's Major Incident Team, will be joined in Ecuador by Det Insp Derek Weaver and Det Con Amanda Murray, both from Tameside CID.

The officers will travel to Quito, Banos and Santa Domingo - where Mrs Pope's cash card was used to withdraw money from a bank.

Mrs Pope left for Santiago, Chile, in late September last year.