True Crime Story(60)
Unfortunately, there are strong arguments against all three. Her disappearance certainly fits espionage, but nothing else we know of her life suggests it. The cash suits extortion, but then why wasn’t the money claimed after her disappearance? Why didn’t anyone even try? And the same goes for being a mule. In fact, in that instance, you’d expect to see test payments in and out before they transferred any whopping great sums to her, and the payments out never happened, not even small ones. It seems unlikely that they’d keep pumping cash in without even attempting to move it on.
Given her background, her social standing, her youth, what I don’t really see is any way your Zoe acquired this kind of money in anything other than illegal circumstances. I’d suggest that whatever the poor girl got wrapped up in, it was as serious as a heart attack.
From: [email protected]
Sent: 2019-02-13 22:17
To: you
Hey, Foxy Knoxy—are you not talking to me now?
Here’s an icebreaker, then. Today I opened the door to a nervous guy asking if I was Evelyn. I said, “Yeah, do I know you?” He said he was my five o’clock. I was like, “My five o’clock what?” He was sweating by this point and it SUDDENLY dawned on me what he was there for. I said, “Sorry bud, I think someone’s playing a prank on us, can I ask where you got my address?”
He was nice enough, bit out of breath, but he did show me the site. It was ANOTHER personal ad, saying roughly the same thing as before, and that I’d undercut any other girl in the area. He’d messaged them to arrange a date and someone actually replied, setting one up, sending him to MY FLAT.
This guy got into the building because someone was leaving when he walked in, but my door’s been buzzed THREE TIMES SINCE. I’ve contacted the site and had it taken down but wanted to say sorry for blowing up at you before. I know you were just worried.
I guess it’s just hard to hear those kinds of doubts from one of the only people I feel like I can trust.
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Anyway.
E(x)
16.
“Unidentified Man”
As Christmas comes and goes with no contact from Zoe and no news on her whereabouts, the Nolan family are forced to explore new avenues to try and keep the story alive.
ROBERT NOLAN:
When I saw leads wouldn’t just drop out of the sky, that the cash in her account and the man in the picture might somehow come to nothing, I started working on ways to keep Zoe’s name and face out there. The students were coming back to Owens Park after the Christmas break, so Sal and me moved out and went back home. She’d wanted to go back before Christmas. We fought up and down about it, but in the end, I had to admit nothing was doing. I still found myself driving back to Manchester most days.
SALLY NOLAN:
I couldn’t live and breathe it like Rob. It was like scratching at the wound and reopening it, and I said that to him. He said, “Well, I want to keep scratching at it. I want the wound to stay open. I want to rub people’s faces in it.” So he took indefinite leave from work—he was still plumbing at the time—and that’s what he did. He’s never stopped rubbing faces in it since.
ROBERT NOLAN:
I had plenty to do. The police had set up a tip line, and as much as the press might have intruded on our lives, as long as they said, “Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Zoe Nolan should contact the police,” at the bottom of each story, I didn’t care. I’d been pushing for everything I could get, just day-to-day, always on the back foot, always reacting, but I saw I needed to start thinking strategically, short term, long term.
In the short term, I knew the best way to get visibility for Zoe would be on TV, a reconstruction of the night she went missing. Someone saw something. Someone had to. I wanted to kick at the bushes and see what creatures came out.
SARAH MANNING:
Rob Nolan was talking about a reconstruction from the first week we met. At the time, that seemed premature—there was still the chance of Zoe walking back into their lives any day. We didn’t have the more troubling aspects of her history of self-harm and drug abuse. We didn’t know about the money in her account or have this photograph of an unidentified man hanging over us.
Now, with all those loose threads in our hands and none of them leading anywhere, with no new developments and a stale tip line, it seemed like the moment to go wider. I contacted the BBC’s Crimewatch on behalf of the Nolan family and set up a meeting on January 15. One of the producers came to Manchester to discuss the suitability of the case with us. That meeting was my first real warning sign. Where I’d expected to be representing the whole family, maybe even some of Zoe’s friends, the only person who showed up was Rob. He hadn’t told anyone else about it.
CARYS PARRY, Former show producer, Crimewatch:
When we were exploring the possibility of a reconstruction, the duty of care to families and victims was always at the forefront of our minds. We never pursued a story without the consent and wider involvement of the police and the family. We never wanted to intrude without everyone’s blessing, basically, but when I met with Mr. Nolan, I could see he was highly motivated for this to go forward. For my part, I felt the story sat comfortably within our purview. It seemed like exactly the kind of situation where we might be able to help.7