When the news broke that little Shannon Matthews was missing nobody imagined that her mum had staged the incident. On that grey February day in 2008, the world's media descended on a close-knit council estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, to report the tragic news that a nine-year-old girl had gone missing, reminiscent of Madeleine McCann vanishing just one year beforehand.
Her desperate mother Karen Matthews pleaded for her daughter's safe return as the local community came together to search the area for her day and night.
The mum made a series of tearful TV appeals for help in finding her daughter as West Yorkshire Police launched one of the force's largest-ever searches, reports the Mirror.However, 24 days after she was first reported missing - the young girl was found, hidden inside the base of a divan bed in Michael Donovan's flat, just a mile from Karen's home.
She had been drugged to keep her quiet and put on an elastic leash to prevent an escape. Karen, along with her boyfriend's uncle Michael Donovan, had staged Shannon's kidnapping in order to claim the £50,000 reward for 'finding' her.
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