4.00pm
Melbourne police holding grave fears for a former Dunedin woman and her two-year-old daughter have revealed the woman's ATM card has been used since the pair went missing in March.
Anna Marie Kemp, 41, was five months pregnant when she and Gracie Louise Sharpe, were last seen on March 23.
Detective Inspector Bernie Rankin of the homicide squad said bank records showed Ms Kemp's Visa card had been used to withdraw cash from a Commonwealth Bank machine at Chelsea on the southern outskirts of Melbourne five times between March 29 and May 19.
But he said police were keeping an open mind on whether the card had been used by Ms Kemp or someone else. The machine did not have a security camera.
Inspector Rankin said it was likely Ms Kemp had met with foul play. She would now be heavily pregnant and had not, as far as police could determine, contacted a doctor since she vanished.
Police said there was still hope of finding Gracie. But as each day passed, fears for her safety were increasing.
"If anyone, whether it be misguided loyalty or thinking they're doing the right thing, has that little child in their possession then now is really the time for them to come forward," Inspector Rankin told The Age newspaper.
He said while Ms Kemp's husband, John Sharpe, claimed his wife was last at their Prince Street, Mornington, home on March 28, the last independent contact she had with someone was five days earlier when she contacted a medical insurance company and made a routine inquiry.
Gracie went to her child care centre on March 24 and 26 after being dropped off and collected by her father. Neither have been seen by anyone else since.
Mr Sharpe told investigators he had telephone contact and several meetings with his wife and daughter after they disappeared, the last of which was in the week of May 17.
Inspector Rankin said although Mr Sharpe told police he was not the father of the baby his wife was expecting, police had found no evidence to suggest she had a relationship with anyone else.
While there were tensions in the marriage before the disappearance, Inspector Rankin would not confirm whether Mr Sharpe was a suspect.
"With an investigation of this type, the investigation commences with the person who last -- (as far as) you are able to establish -- saw her alive," he said.
Last month Mr Sharpe in an interview with a Melbourne newspaper.
denied killing his daughter and estranged wife.
Since the pair vanished, Mrs Kemp's family in Dunedin has received emails purporting to be from her, which suggested she needed time and space.
But police have cast doubt on their authenticity.
Police are also unsure if flowers sent to Ms Kemp's 65-year-old mother, Lilly, on Mother's Day were from her.
- NZPA
Missing mum's ATM card used since disappearance
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