December 2, 2005
kate osborne, missing
A friend just sent me this very sad 2003 Guardian article about a mutual old friend of ours, Kate Osborne. She was a real sweetheart when I knew her, back as a teenager in Edinburgh:
The parents of a British woman who disappeared in mysterious circumstances from her home in Bali two months ago along with her Peruvian boyfriend arrived on the island yesterday with two British police officers to look for their daughter.
Patrick and Liz Osborne, from Carlisle, Cumbria, admit the situation is suspicious because they are convinced Joanna Kate Osborne, 35, would have rung home on her birthday, May 13, if she could and would never have left her 18-month-old weimaraner dog Maisie without making proper arrangements.
Turns out the boyfriend was a bit of a drug dealer. Great. Turns out he used to beat her up on occasion. Terrific. Turns out she wouldn’t leave him because “She loved him”. Wonderful.
Her parents have set up a website if anybody has any news of her whereabouts.
I know. The Guardian article reads like a scene from that Leonardo DiCaprio movie, “The Beach”. Strangely enough, the movie’s producer, Andrew MacDonald, was also part of the same young, private-school Edinburgh gang from that time.
The last time I saw her, just over fifteen years ago, she had just finished college. When I first knew her she was just a wee, pretty child, but had since blossomed into this really beautiful young woman. Even back then, she was adamant about foregoing the “staid, boring, upper-middle class lives” that she had been raised around, preferring to opt instead for a life of adventure in faraway places. And that’s exactly what happened.
Poor Kate. I only found out about it yesterday. I can only offer my deepest condolences to her family. Poor Mr and Mrs Osborne.
Very, very sad.
[BBC UPDATE, published six months later:]
Her parents, Patrick and Liz, have issued a statement in which they accepted their daughter has probably been killed.
The statement said: “After an extensive investigation into the disappearance of our daughter Kate, we are now forced to conclude that she has been murdered.”
Hmm, gone missing in Bali. Very possible that she is murdered. If not, I hope she would be found soon. And if yes, I hope they will find her body soon and hope that her soul will rest in peace.