POLICE have re-opened the case of a missing mother and are appealing for help in solving the 45-year-old mystery.

Det Ch Insp Tony Kofkin, of Kent Police, is hoping vital information, unknown in 1961 and 1962, will finally help close the investigation into the disappearance of Iris Pettet, from Walmer from Deal.

He said: “If we can find out how she died and when she died it will bring a closure for the two children. The case is a real mystery and this could be the last opportunity to find out what happened to Mrs Pettet.”

A national newspaper offered a £500 reward in February 1962 for information leading to the whereabouts of the 33-year-old, who lived with her family in Dover Road, Walmer.

The police had calls from hundreds of people claiming to have seen her but investigations failed to solve the mystery.

According to an East Kent Mercury front page early in January 1962, officers searched the family home, dug for clues in the garden, inspected sewers, inquired at the brewery where Mrs Pettet’s husband John worked and took away the rear seat from his 1939 saloon car for tests.

Mr Kofkin added: “From the original investigation there was no doubt she died very soon after she disappeared in 1961. It was a high profile case and is now being reviewed by Kent Police as a result of a review of outstanding missing persons in the area.

“We have been in contact with the children, a daughter in Wales and a son in Australia, as well as Iris’s sister who also lives overseas.”

Mr Kofkin believes there are people still living in the Deal and Walmer area who have information not brought forward in the 1960s, which could now help the new investigation.

In 1962 the East Kent Mercury described her as weighing 16 stone. She had no teeth and did not wear dentures.

If anyone can help the police with the inquiry phone 01303 289180.