BREAKING NEWS Shocking update on British tourist, 18, who 'vanished on holiday in Thailand' after her family put out desperate plea
A British teenager who went missing while on holiday in Thailand, sparking a huge search to find her, has been arrested in Georgia on 'drug offences.'
Bella May Culley, 18, from Billingham, County Durham, had been travelling around the country with a friend but had not been heard from since Saturday.
Her phone was said to have been turned off and she was last thought to be in the Pattaya area, which is close to Bangkok.
But now, Cleveland Police has said that authorities in Georgia have confirmed that 'an 18-year-old woman from Billingham has been arrested there on suspicion of drugs offences and that she remains in their custody.'
Questions remain as to how Bella journeyed from Thailand to Georgia.
The teenager first flew out to the Philippines just after Easter this year and flew to Thailand around May 3. Bella had been regularly posting on social media and last shared a picture to Facebook on Monday, May 5.
Her distraught family earlier appealed for help to trace her whereabouts, with police in Thailand involved in the search.
Bella, who has recently finished a course at Middlesbrough College with the aim of becoming a nurse, was in regular contact with her mother Lyanne Kennedy and was due to speak with her on Saturday but the family has had no word since.
Bella's father Neil Culley flew out to Thailand with his sister Kerrie Culley to try to get answers.
Lyanne told Teesside Live: 'She flew out to the Philippines after Easter with a friend and she was there for three weeks.
'She was posting loads of pictures and then she went to Thailand on about May 3.
'The last message she sent was to me and that was on Saturday at 5.30pm saying she was going to Facetime me later.
'That was the last message anyone has received from what we can figure out up to now.
'I'm just waiting on her dad who is now in Bangkok to get back with any more information.
'I just want her home and safe or to hear her gorgeous little voice.'
Lyanne also told the Sun that she had a bad feeling about Bella's trip to Thailand, telling the newspaper: 'I really didn't want her to go to Thailand. I begged her to come home. I don't trust some of the boys over there.
Bella's mother Lyanne posted this appeal on Facebook for help to trace her whereabouts, with police in Thailand now involved in the search
'But she wanted to meet up with some friends she made over there on a previous trip. I don't know who any of them are.'
After Bella's father Neil arrived in Bankkok, he went straight to a police station, where officers told him to contact the country's immigration bureau to figure out where Bella was last staying.
Lyanne told the Sun: 'When she stopped answering messages I assumed it was because she was flying back to surprise me. But then nothing.'
The family got in touch with the airline, who revealed that Bella had made a request for a ticket but the payment never went through.
Lyanne added: 'We think she was last near Pattaya, and was supposed to fly back from Bangkok via Frankfurt according to the itinerary.'
'But I never heard anything about picking her up.'
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