Police call off hunt for pensioner

The search for missing Oldbury pensioner Margaret Elliott has been called off after police said it was "increasingly unlikely" that she would be found.

The 75-year-old has been missing since June 28.

No-one knows what happened to the former Causeway Green Primary School teacher after she vanished from her home in Barnford Crescent in the early hours.

Despite a campaign spreading to other police forces and posters being put up all over the Black Country, no details have emerged that could help find the mother-of-two, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

The admission from police came after hundreds of people gave up their weekend to join a search party but to no avail.

Det Insp Gary Dring of Smethwick police station said today: "It is becoming increasingly unlikely that we will find Margaret Elliott.

"The investigation will now rely on sightings and we therefore appeal again to members of the public who think they may have have seen her to get in touch.

"There will be no more searches."

Mrs Elliott was seen on Windsor Road in Oldbury, at 9.15am, on the day she disappeared, but has not been seen since. More than 200 members of family, friends, residents and ex-pupils spent four hours searching for her last weekend.