The father of Amelia Bambridge, the British woman missing on Koh Rong island in Cambodia, has said he is losing hope that his daughter will be found alive.
The 21-year-old from Sussex went to a party on Police Beach with about six friends and was last seen at approximately 3am local time on Thursday (2100 BST on Wednesday). CCTV footage of walkways near the beach reviewed on Monday showed she arrived at the party at about 2am, but did not show her returning.
Her father, Phil Bambridge, and her brother Harry Bambridge joined more than 100 Cambodian officials and about 15 volunteers on Monday morning for a third day of searching the island and surrounding ocean. Amelia’s mother, Linda Schultes, arrived on Koh Rong later in the day.
On Monday afternoon, Phil Bambridge said he did not think his daughter would be found alive. “I’m not doing very well,” he said. “I just hope we can find her, but it seems like it’s going to be difficult. I’m not [optimistic], unless a miracle happens. I hope a miracle does happen, but I don’t think we’ll see her.”
Bambridge’s bag, containing her bank cards, phone and other items, was found on rocks next to Police Beach on Thursday morning. Phil Bambridge said that due to reports and evidence he had seen about her disappearance, he feared his daughter may have made an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment on her night out.
“I spoke to her [before her trip] about safety, safety, safety, safety,” he said. “And she was like, ‘Yeah’, she knew about all that. She was always reliable, switched on. But I think she still broke her own rules. She had her safety rules, and she let them slip, and she’s now paid the ultimate price.”
A Cambodian official working with police on Koh Rong said on Monday a local man was talking to officers on the island, but had not been suspected of or charged with any crime. The man had allegedly been the subject of complaints by women over incidents unrelated to Bambridge. He was not believed to have attended the beach party.
Police searched the man’s clothes and other possessions in a hostel where he worked. Harry Bambridge, accompanied by police, checked the property for items that may have belonged to his sister.
Search teams continued to spread out across Koh Rong’s 78 sq km (30 sq miles) of land, and the sea around it. Three Cambodian soldiers examined dense jungle near Police Beach, one of many groups searching on foot. They used machetes to hack through undergrowth, visited remote houses, and broke locks off storage units to check inside.
Phil Bambridge said he had not considered how long the family would remain on Koh Rong. He lives in Vietnam, where he works as an English language teacher, and had been looking forward to his daughter joining him there.
He said Amelia was a “very clever, bright person. She was enjoying her life, looking forward to her backpacking. She wanted to backpack for about three or four months then come to Vietnam and be an ESL [English as a second language] teacher. She had plans to go to Australia and New Zealand. She just wanted to enjoy herself.”
When asked how much hope he had left regarding what may have happened to his daughter, he said: “Not a great deal, that she’s going to be found alive.”
