Shannon Matthews: New documentary on disappearance of nine-year-old girl set for release, who is she

The two-part documentary, The Hunt for Shannon Matthews, set to be released on August 17, centres on neighbour Julie Bushby how she became a central figure in the community’s fight to find the missing girl.

Bushby told The Telegraph she was at home doing the ironing when she first heard the news. “One of the neighbours was outside, looking down towards Karen’s house and she told me that Shannon had gone missing.”

Karen Matthews, 32, had phoned police to report her “beautiful princess daughter” missing after the schoolgirl failed to return home from school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on February 19, 2008. The 24-day search, costing £3.2 million, would grip the nation and later provoke a debate on class, welfare, and “broken Britain.”

Then chairman of the Moorside tenants and residents association, Bushby opened the Community House as a hub for the round-the-clock search. She initially thought “Shannon could have just gone down to her mates or anything,” but the scale of the situation became clear when she opened her curtains to see the street “just full of TV wagons.”

Within 48 hours, 200 volunteers had joined the hunt in freezing temperatures. “The local towns, they showed (genuine) interest. The rest of the country, I think, judged us more than anything else,” Bushby said, recalling how some media outlets portrayed Dewsbury Moor as a “real-life version” of the TV series Shameless.

On March 14, Bushby received a phone call saying Shannon had been rescued by police from the base of a bed in a Batley Carr flat belonging to Michael Donovan, the uncle of Matthews’s partner. “I think for all of us, it was a big relief,” she said.

In the weeks following Shannon’s return, Bushby and neighbour Natalie Wood confronted Matthews in a police liaison officer’s car. “My thoughts were, ‘God, I hope it’s over today. I hope she comes out with the truth.’” Matthews eventually admitted, “Yes, that’s right,” before being arrested.

Matthews and Donovan were later convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice. All of Matthews’s children were taken into care, and Shannon was given a new identity. Donovan died from cancer last year.

Bushby still believes others were involved. “Still to this day, I think that,” she told The Telegraph, adding that the trial judge also said there were likely more people implicated. She has three people in mind but said, “I’m not going to name them because I can’t afford the lawsuit.”

Seventeen years later, Bushby hopes Shannon, now 26, “is doing well, and she’s reaching her dreams,” though she added, “Well, she’ll never be able to put it behind her, will she?”