Patrícia Araújo went to the Notting Hill Carnival alone. The last time she was seen was on Sunday
The mobile phone was found and the family contacted, but there is no sign of Patrícia Araújo. The 26-year-old young woman from Aveiro, who has been living in England for six years, decided to go alone to the Notting Hill Carnival – a three-day festival in Notting Hill, a neighborhood in London – and since Sunday, no one has heard from her.
On social media, appeals are multiplying. Cláudia Araújo, Patrícia’s aunt, reveals on Facebook that they know “nothing about her since Sunday morning and, to make matters worse, she lost her phone. This means we have no way of contacting her.”
“The last time she was seen was probably at the Notting Hill Carnival in London over the weekend. If anyone has seen her or knows anything about her, please contact me on Facebook. The police are already involved, we hope to find her safe and sound,” reads the post.
The family’s plea
In an interview with CNN Portugal, Cláudia starts by saying that, before going to London, her niece went out at night in Ashford, Kent, where she lives, and only then headed to the capital with a backpack containing a change of clothes to meet her cousin, Yara, who lives in London.
“I don’t know if she went to the house or not, but I do know that she had a backpack with a change of clothes because on Saturday she went to London and got off at Stratford train station and called my niece – who is her cousin and lives in London – and asked her if she was home and if she could stop by. Of course, she said yes. So she went there, changed clothes, and left the bag with the other clothes she had. My niece asked her why she went there alone,” says Patrícia’s aunt.
It was then that the young woman revealed that she was thinking of going to the carnival, and her cousin tried to dissuade her by inviting her to go out at night with her in London. But, in the middle of the night, Patrícia “left” and only informed her cousin afterward.
On Sunday morning, Yara managed to talk to her cousin around noon and discovered that Patrícia – or Trish, as she is called in England – was at the Notting Hill Carnival, having fun, having resisted her cousin’s appeals to come back home.
“No, I’m having fun, so I’m going to stay here. I’ll see you later tonight to pick up my things,” the young woman is said to have replied.
But Patrícia never showed up. The young woman’s phone would later be found by a DJ on Sunday, but the family only became aware of what was happening on Tuesday, when the DJ plugged the phone in to charge and called Yara, who “went into a panic”.
“He called me, he called my sister, and asked, ‘What do we do? This, this, and this happened, I haven’t heard from Patrícia, I’m worried, a lot is going to happen at the carnival, what do I do?’ And we told him to contact the London police,” Cláudia says, adding that the police told them that “since we had been in contact with her on Sunday at noon, we would have to wait until Wednesday to file the missing person report.”
The official alert for Patrícia’s disappearance was then given on Wednesday, the same day the family went to London to distribute flyers at train and bus stations. At the same time, on social media, family and friends multiplied their appeals, and some responded that they had seen Patrícia at the carnival.
“There was a girl who was at the carnival who saw my niece, and by chance she had a video where she appeared. She only said that she saw on TikTok that she was missing. The girl confirmed that she was alone and seemed a bit disoriented. The images we have of the clothes she is wearing are indeed from this girl’s video. And, well, we don’t know anything else,” Cláudia reveals, adding that her niece hadn’t been to London in a year and had never been to the carnival before.
The young woman’s phone, now handed over to the family, was taken by the police. Authorities also questioned Patrícia’s relatives.
Contacted by CNN Portugal, a source from the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities says that “so far, they have not been contacted, and they are now making inquiries to understand the situation.”
According to the Metropolitan Police of London, cited by BBC News, five people were stabbed on Monday and three on Sunday. Some of the victims were in very serious condition and at risk of death. In total, 334 people were arrested over the three days.
Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of London for the carnival, filling the Notting Hill neighborhood and surrounding districts with colors, costumes, dance, and music.