A MOTHER whose son disappeared 17 years ago this month has put out her appeal for her son to come home, as she has done every year since he went missing. But Sally Langley, 65 and who suffered a heart attack last year, says she is now reconciled to the fa

A MOTHER whose son disappeared 17 years ago this month has put out her appeal for her son to come home, as she has done every year since he went missing.

But Sally Langley, 65 and who suffered a heart attack last year, says she is now reconciled to the fact that she may never see her son again.

Andrew Bedford was 27 when he disappeared on Friday, September 28, 1990. His mother says he was last seen eating pie and chips at Factory Bank near The Great Whyte in Ramsey, sitting in a car he had borrowed.

She says he returned the car and was never seen again. Andrew left a former wife, a girlfriend and a daughter, Lesley, then four and now 21. Mrs Langley says: "He came to see me in Ramsey where I was cooking my partner's tea and he said he was going home to have a bath and he might go out. I said to him: 'Stay out of trouble'."

He was seen later drinking at The Seven Wives pub in St Ives. Andrew took no clothes with him and did not return to his home in Oxmoor that he shared with his girlfriend, Clare. She reported him missing to the police later that night.

Mrs Langley said: "For the first two years, there were unconfirmed sightings of him in Peterborough and King's Lynn. Then there was nothing.

"I don't do anything special on the anniversary - I just sit and cry. I know now that I will probably never see him again."

Andrew has a brother, Barry, now 39 and two sisters, Carole, 42 and Linda, 38. He has 10 nephews and nieces aged 16 and younger whom he has never seen.

Mrs Langley said there was no reason why Andrew should have disappeared, although she had heard he had been a police informer.

"He had been in trouble. He got in with the wrong crowd."

Every year since Andrew's disappearance - except last year when she was recovering from her heart attack - Mrs Langley has contacted The Hunts Post to put out her annual appeal to her son to come home.

She said: "I would just like to say to him: come back, we want to see you. You can stay with me, I am on my own now. Part of me knows that I might never see him again but I can't give up hope.