‘New sightings' of missing mum, 36, who police fear was murdered after vanishing on trip to Morrisons
COPS are probing new potential sightings of a mum who disappeared while shopping last year.
Charlene Hobbs, 36, from Cardiff, vanished on July 2024 after a trip to Morrisons.
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The last known sighting is a photograph of Charlene taken at a property in Broadway, Adamsdown.
Her hair was in a bun, and she was wearing a dark strapless top.
But cops investigating her disappearance have received new information suggesting she may have been seen in the Adamsdown and Coryton areas.
South Wales Police say Charlene was spotted at these locations with unknown people, according to witnesses.
Police investigating the disappearance of Cardiff woman Charlene Hobbs have received new information of potential sightings in Adamsdown and Coryton.
Members of the public have contacted South Wales Police believing they have seen Charlene at these locations with currently unknown people.
Detectives are appealing for these unknown people, who are potential witnesses, to please come forward.
The first potential sighting was at around 11.20am on July 29.
Charlene was reportedly seen on the railway bridge, known locally as the Black Bridge.
Witnesses claimed the mum may have been wearing a blue jacket.
She was seen walking in a single file with two men, one of which was described as white, aged in his 30s or 40s, and of average height.
The other man was donning a black face covering and was also of average height.
Nearly four months after Charlene vanished, members of the public said they saw her at an Asda in Coryton, Cardiff.
The 36-year-old was allegedly spotted at around 5.30pm on November 1.
She was at the front of the store by the security desk with a young boy who looked around four-years-old.
Another woman, around 40, with short burgundy dyed hair, approached Charlene and all three left the supermarket.
Cops have since arrested a 45-year-old man in connection with the investigation.
He remains on police bail.
South Wales Police are still treating Charlene's disappearance as murder.
Crimestoppers charity continues to offer a reward of up to £20,000 for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
Detective Chief Inspector Matt Powell, from South Wales Police, said: 'As a result of enquiries we have received information of two possible sightings of Charlene.
'We would appeal to anyone with further information on these two sightings in Adamsdown and Coryton to please come forward.
'In particular, we are urging the two men on the railway bridge and the woman with the dyed burgundy hair in Asda to come forward.
'Despite a huge number of enquiries, we still have no proof that Charlene is alive, but we remain determined to find Charlene alive and return her to her family.
'Charlene's family continue to be updated, and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.'
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Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
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EXCLUSIVE The true cost of Glasgow's gang wars: How city is fighting drugs crisis after kingpins flood streets with heroin and cocaine leading to addicts shooting up in parks and dropping needles with impunity
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Others, who had already taken their fix, slumped over in the sunshine and lay on the grass, semi-comatose and masquerading as sun bathers while passersby walked to work. Calton resident Dawn, who didn't want to be pictured in this article, claimed more drugdealers had been seen in the area since usage centre was announced. She said: 'I feel there's a lot more drug dealers in the area, because this thing is here. I don't know if that's the same in Berne Switzerland that has one. 'I would like to know if the drug dealers were in that area when that first opened. People know there's going to be a lot of drug users here now so they're coming into the area. I see all the drug paraphernalia too, the needles lying about the street. 'I've got a couple of grandkids, and I was taking my two year old granddaughter over at this playground. But my neighbours said there's needles all over there, so I don't want to take her there. It's got worse. 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She claimed: 'Police have been instructed not to be stopping and searching people unnecessarily, and not to be hanging around that immediate area, because then that would be a bit off putting for any service users. 'I'm on the drugs forum up there, the committee, and we asked the question of the councillor as well, of what's the situation with the police? And they said they've been told not to stop and search anyone, unless they're causing a breach of the peace, like any disturbance, then they would have an excuse to stop and search them.' She added: 'It goes all the way to Glasgow cross and Barrowland Park and one of the ladies that works in a cafe there, she's up near this way, and she said sometimes she's going out of her house in the morning and she's stepping over bodies and everything. She added that she was concerned for the future of the children in the area: 'There should be more money going into prevention and education as well as a chance for recovery at the other end. We have no community centre. We have no schools in this area. We have nowhere for the kids to play in this area. 'There's one little swing park just up the road, and only last week or the week before, two home helps were going through there and said to me, there was someone sitting on the bench at the time when children were travelling to school publicly injecting in a child's playground. 'So this is normalising this for kids in this area. You see needles. You see someone injecting. That's just what happens. So what is the future for them? They shouldn't be exposed to this.' But who is behind Glasgow's soaring drugs crisis and why are the authorities seemingly powerless to remove the substances from the street? Ex-undercover cop McLean, who runs the Crime Time Inc podcast, was part of a group of elite detectives in the murder and drugs squads during a 40-year career in the police. He believes the recent gang war attacks that have plagued the city are a result of the Scottish government going 'soft on crime'. McLean told MailOnline: 'When we go soft on crime, which we are now because there are no policemen, crime moves in and fills the vacuum. Right now, the organised crime has taken over.' He added: 'We're throwing fuel on the fire and we call it a success. Every time we have a 'success', what we actually do is make the problem worse. 'What we do is create a vacuum where there are funds to be made. There's a lot of turf wars going on. That's the real consequences of enforcement. 'There's money to be made. It's a marketplace. And there are two or three similar organisations more than ready, not just to take over the patch, but to fight for the patch. 'In the 80s, crime was through the roof because of drugs. Murders and violence were fairly prominent. 'Glasgow has always been like that. Gangs aren't a new thing. There were the razor gangs [of the 1920s and 30s], the sectarianism has always been there as well. 'Afghan heroin hit the streets in the early 80s in Edinburgh, Glasgow and every other major city in the UK and that changed everything. 'That got us to where we are today, not because of those changes but because of the way we handled them with enforcement and prohibition, thinking we could snub out the drug problem by locking people up. 'Drugs are a gift for [organised crime groups].' Former undercover cop Simon McLean, who also founded Scotland's Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) that is aimed at bringing about drug law reform, previously said the gangs' power could be diminished by ending the enforcement of the prohibition on drugs. He said decriminalising, regulating and taxing drugs in the way alcohol and cigarettes are, as well as then helping addicts directly, could lead to less crime, fewer deaths and more money for the public. He said murder rates may have dropped for a number of reasons including the introduction of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit that aimed to prevent crime by going to the source of the trouble, as well as stricter firearms laws and a propensity for killers to plea murder charges down to manslaughter. During his time in Glasgow's Govan area, McLean pioneered a weeklong operation to rid the area of drugs. Although no drugs were sold for the entire week, McLean said the operation was actually a failure that highlighted how police had and are sometimes still taking the wrong approach. He said: 'We closed Govan. You could not buy smack, you couldn't get drugs anywhere. 'I was getting phone calls from detectives from the Gorbals and Possilpark and Easterhouse and all these parts of Glasgow, saying, ''Are you Simon McLean? Have you got this f***ing operation going? We're getting inundated with all your junkies up here.'' 'Because all we did was change the shape. The demand was still the same. They couldn't get it in Govan, so they went elsewhere. 'So nobody went without, although we were hugely successful [in Govan]. It's the same now. No matter how much drugs you take off the streets, nobody is going without.' Chief Inspector Max Shaw said: 'Police Scotland has a duty to respond to the needs of our communities. We are aware of long-standing issues in the area and continue to work closely in partnership to address these concerns. 'We remain committed to reducing the harm associated with problematic substance use and addiction and our approach to any initiative, aimed at tackling these harms, will be to establish how best we can support it within the confines of the law. 'We continue to engage with members of the local community to discuss any concerns and would encourage reporting of incidents to Police Scotland.' A spokeswoman for the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership said: 'We are in absolute agreement that drug taking takes place in and around the vicinity of Hunter Street. It's been happening for years. It's a long-standing issue and one of the reasons for the Thistle's location. 'We have staff outreaching to areas where public injecting is known to take place - and are keen to engage with the community around this in order that we can follow up with any concerns they have. 'At present, the thistle is not able to facilitate the inhalation of drugs but is something we will consider as part of the ongoing evaluation.'
