The mother of a missing prostitute from Great Yarmouth has died without ever knowing what happened to her daughter.

Eastern Daily Press: Missing person Kellie Pratt.Missing person Kellie Pratt. (Image: Archant)

Kellie Pratt's disappearance 15 years ago remains one of Norfolk's unsolved cases and her body has never been found.

Police confirmed this week that her mother Gloria Carpena had died in Newcastle.

A friend who asked not to be named said it was sad that Mrs Carpena had had to suffer such and long and heavy burden of loss, the never finding out compounding her nightmare.

Speaking on one of many harrowing anniversaries Mrs Carpena told in 2010 how she thought of her daughter every day.

Mother-of-two Kellie, 28, went missing on Sunday, June 11, 2000.

Kellie was last seen at about 11.30pm talking on a mobile phone outside The Rose pub at the junction of Queens Road and City Road in Norwich.

Earlier she had spoken to friends on her mobile to tell them she was with a client.

Later that night she failed to meet her friends for a prearranged lift, leaving all her belongings behind and making no contact with her family or friends.

Gloria, a mother-of-three who had five grandchildren, said in an interview 10 years after Kellie's disappearance: 'I don't know what could have happened, and not knowing makes it harder.

'Each day I think about Kellie, it doesn't get any easier.

'I think about her all the time and what could have happened to her. I wake up every morning and look at her photo on my bedroom wall. Her disappearance torments me.'

Gloria added: 'I know deep down she is not coming back, she would have been in touch with me by now if she was still alive. But I can't move on because I don't know what really happened.

'I have never held a funeral because there is no body. I have thought about holding a memorial service but I grasp onto hope that one day she could walk back into my life, although in my heart of hearts I know it will never happen, but I refuse to let go of her.

'Not until her body is found and I have facts of what happened to her will I be able to draw closure. It's a mother's nightmare.'

Officers have never found the Nokia 6110 mobile phone Kellie was using when she vanished, despite detailed searches.

When former Norwich landlord Steve Wright was convicted of the murder of five women in Ipswich, Norfolk police investigated whether he was linked to Kellie's disappearance along with the unsolved murders of Norwich prostitutes Natalie Pearman and Michelle Bettles, but no links were found.

Originally from Byker in Newcastle, Kellie had moved to Great Yarmouth with her mother and brother.

She moved to Norwich after being in prison for shoplifting and turned to prostitution to feed her growing heroin addiction.

Mrs Carpena stayed in Yarmouth for some years 'just in case' something turned up but eventually moved back to Newcastle.

A Norfolk Police spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that we have been informed of the death of Kellie Pratt's mother. It is not a matter for Norfolk Constabulary and a file is with the coroner in Newcastle.'