‘I knew something was wrong when I walked into my daughter’s flat’

When Janina Vincent took one look at her daughter Portia’s London home, she knew instantly she had not been there for some time.

The air in her North Finchley flat seemed stale, food was rotting in the fridge, and a dead flower sat wilting in the corner of the room.

‘Portia loves life, she would never leave a dried up brown flower in the corner of the room,’ Janina explains in an exclusive interview with Metro.’I knew straight away, she had not been home. Her bed was also unmade, which was very unusual for her.’

Since that moment, the mum says the family has been ‘bleeding quietly and inwardly’.

As far as Janina knows, Portia was last seen on February 21, as she walked with a friend to Victoria Station. The last time anyone heard from her was a few days later on February 25.

At the time, Janina was away on a six week holiday overseas. She was enjoying her last week, when a worried friend got in touch to say they were concerned about Portia, 33, after she stopped replying to texts.

‘As soon as I landed back, I made it my mission to trace her,’ she says.

Janina contacted Portia’s landlord who had also not heard from her, so she then called the police. Together, on March 13, they went to the flat. As Janina took a look around, the gravity of the situation became clearer and her daughter was reported as oficially missing.

‘Her true passion in life is studying’

Over the years, Portia worked a number of jobs – and even ran as a green party candidate. ‘But her true passion was studying,’ Janina explains. ‘She would do that for the rest of her life if she could.’

Having written for a number of publications, including for British American Business and Lawyer Monthy, Portia even self published a book called Arridaeus, written in a Shakespearean style.

‘She is just so bright and reading all of the time. She has a Masters degree in philosophy – she thinks differently from us all. She’s always been quirky,which is what her friends love about her.’

‘I was dangerously close to imploding’

Janina, who is based in Faversham, Kent, last spent time with her daughter just before Christmas, where the pair walked around London for hours and getting a late lunch.

‘We did have a nice time, but over the last year, we have been slightly more estranged after Portia was diagnosed with PTSD. But prior to his we had a great relationship,’ she explains.

Not knowing where her daughter has gone, quickly took it’s toll on Janina. A few weeks after Portia had been reported missing, she explains how she had to go away for a couple of nights as she was ‘dangerously close to imploding’.

‘I was thinking, “‘How can this all be? How can my child just vanish?” At one point I was dangerously on edge, and had to get away so I didn’t become a mess.’

Chance pub visit

In April, the family received a tiny breakhrough, when they discovered that Portia had run into a family friend in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel a month earlier, on March 14.

‘He didn’t know she was missing at the time, and he hadn’t seen her for around 10 years. But he said she was sat there on her own, with no drinks or anything,’ explains Janina. ‘He bought her two, they chatted for at least an hour, and then they parted ways.’

Armed with news of the sighting, she quickly contacted the police who managed to access to the pub’s CCTV, which showed her daughter looking ‘very unwell and distressed’.

‘Janina adds: ‘After that, the trail goes cold as CCTV cameras outside were either broken or the footage had been wiped.’

The police have recently released this footage to the public.

‘We are growing increasingly concerned for Portia’s safety, as this behaviour is out of character for her. We urge anyone who may have seen her to contact police,’ PC Harjinder Kang, from the Met’s north west missing persons unit tells Metro.

‘Officers have been carrying out a number of enquiries in an effort to trace her and we are now turning to the public for help. Please get in touch if you can help us locate Portia.’

Today, Janina tells Metro that although she and her son Max, are naturally quite stoic people, they have ‘been left with no choice but to carry on’.

It’s the not knowing has been the hardest on the family, she adds.

‘Her granddad, my dad, still messages Portia all the time, asking where she is. My other half cries whenever he talks about it.

‘I just don’t understand how anyone can just disappear off the face of the earth.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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