A FRESH appeal for information on what happened to a Stourport student nurse has been made 50 years after her mysterious disappearance.

Maria Bernadette Aldridge went missing from Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham, between May 21 and 24 1968 when she was aged just 17.

She grew up with her family in Hanstone Road, on the Walshes Estate, and was staying in the Old Hulme nurses’ residence in Dudley when she vanished. She hadn’t taken her belongings or her pay.

On the ‘Missing Maria Aldridge’ Facebook page, it states that the family were only alerted to her disappearance when Paul Gough – who is believed to be her boyfriend – visited the family home looking for her.

Despite extensive searches and a police investigation, no trace of Maria was found.

Her worried mother Mary O’Sullivan spent 40 years trying to find her daughter, keeping her name in the media and even put her name forward to the investigation team dealing with the Fred and Rose West case, but no link was found.

Sadly, Mrs O’Sullivan died in 2006 not knowing what happened to Maria. Her sister Cathy Phillips, who now lives in Canada, managed to get detectives to reopen the case in 2009 but the inquiry again went cold.

Speaking to the Shuttle in 2009, Mrs Phillips – who was also known as Pat Aldridge – said not knowing what had happened to her sister had been distressing.

She said: “She had no reason to run away. She had her freedom and independence.”

Anyone with information about Maria or the circumstances of her disappearance should contact West Midlands Police by calling 101.