A police record from 1911, in which a certain Rosa Micallef reported hearing a child crying on the day of the disappearance. Photo: NAG –National Archives Gozo

The oldest surviving relative of Modestina Cefai, a six-year-old Gozitan girl who vanished more than 100 years ago, has made a last ditch appeal for information that could solve the mystery of her disappearance.

“We are not seeking justice – too much time has passed for that. Our wish is to find her remains, to be able to give her a proper burial. Most of all, we want to settle this tragedy which has wreaked havoc on my family,” Modestina’s 87-year-old niece told The Sunday Times of Malta.

The shock of the girl’s disappearance, which was infused from the beginning with a suspicion that she had been abducted and killed, possibly for sexual motives, sent ripples through Gozo. But it also devastated the family.

“Both my grandparents died young and my mother says that the eldest sister also died from the anguish not long after Modestina’s disappearance,” she says.

Despite being an effervescent elderly woman with a ready smile, talking about the girl’s story brings a pang to Josephine’s face. She would rather go just by her first name and not have pictures of herself taken.

In the original missing person’s report filed by her father, Giovanni, known as tal-Magna, on August 27, 1911, she was described as being three feet and seven inches tall, and having curled brown hair, dark eyes and a “fresh complexion”.

She had left her home in St Francis Square, Victoria, at noon. She was wearing a pink dress, gold earrings and a faldetta – a traditional women’s head dress that has long gone out of fashion.

“My mother never stopped talking about Modestina. Whenever she spoke about her, she talked about her beautiful, curly hair,” Josephine recalls.

“In the years after her disappearance, her parents insisted on leaving the key in the house door day and night, so she would be able to open immediately if miraculously she returned. She never did but hope is last to die.”

The story came back to life last month when demolition work was halted on a town house in Palma Street, Victoria, long rumoured to be the burial place of the girl.

Word spread that the work had stopped because they had finally found the girl’s remains. In fact, nothing was discovered, but the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage stopped the demolition because of the finding of a Roman wall and some pottery from the period.

The theory that circulated in Gozo is that Modestina was abducted by a man who possibly abused and killed her, and walled her body in an alcove known as imramma (which in those days were commonly used as a pantry).

We are not seeking justice – too much time has passed for that

The house is a stone’s throw away from where Modestina used to live. However, research into the police records of her disappearance at the Gozo National Archives shows that this property, which was rumoured to be the girl’s burial place, is not mentioned.

In February 1968, structural work on an abutting property fuelled similar rumours of her remains being found, sparking a magisterial inquiry, which also established that there was nothing of the sort.

Many reports were filed at the time by people who thought they saw her or had information but though the police carried out investigations, nothing came of them.

When the family saw the story of the latest false alarm in The Sunday Times of Malta last month, it triggered an urge to give the search another try, even if it may be a long shot after so much time.

Asked if her mother had ever given any indication of suspicions her family may have had, Josephine shrugs her shoulders.

“There was a lot of suspicion but never anything founded. I am hoping that someone somewhere knows something and will find it in his heart to come forward.

“I feel I owe it to Modestina and my family to try to do something.”