It was the missing child case that captured the nation but when Shannon Matthews was found alive against all odds after nearly a month, her mother Karen’s reaction troubled cops

Shannon was the victim of a sick hoax orchestrated by her own mother(Image: ANDY STENNING)

When Karen Matthews’ nine-year-old daughter went missing, her local community could not have been more supportive.

It was February 19, 2008, when Matthews called police to say her child had not returned home. The report sparked a huge police investigation and the mum’s friends and neighbours on the Moorside Estate joined in the search, hunting around the clock for the youngster.

According to UK charity Missing People, when children disappear, some 90 per cent are found within just two days. Shannon was found alive and well after an agonising 24 days, by which point many people were fearing the worst.

Shannon suffered nightmares long after she was freed(Image: Getty Images)

The schoolgirl was found hidden in a bed drawer in the home of Michael Donovan, an uncle to Matthews’ partner Craig Meehan. Donovan was arrested and to everyone’s horror, immediately implicated Shannon’s own mother in the kidnapping.

Matthews and Donovan had conspired together to make money from the publicity their sick hoax would generate but instead, each was jailed for eight years for kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Ahead of Matthews’ arrest, huge red flags had begun to emerge.

Speaking in a new Amazon Prime documentary taking a deep dive into the notorious case, detectives described the moment Matthews was asking to formally identify her daughter. She sat with Shannon in a room, when her mother was asked to view her through glass to confirm it was her child.

For any other parent, it would be a heartbreaking moment, after not knowing where your young child had been for nearly a month. But the mum’s reaction was chillingly cold. “Karen said: ‘Yeah, that’s Shannon and that was it,” said Nick Townsend, who was one of the main investigators.

Detective Christine found Karen’s attitude to being reunited with her daughter ‘appalling’

“No emotion. This is a mother who’s seeing her daughter who had been missing for over three weeks for the first time. She’s shown no inkling of wanting to hug her, to speak to her.”

“I was sat with Shannon in one room and Karen was outside looking through,” added retired detective Christine Freeman. “She never asked where she’d been found, she never asked how she was.

“As a detective I did find it strange but as a mum I found it absolutely appalling.”

Disturbing details about Matthews and Donovan’s cruel treatment of Shannon were revealed during their subsequent court case. The schoolgirl had been drugged with adult sedative temazepam after she was kidnapped, something which had been done to her regularly for up to two years.

Shannon is thought that have been tethered to a beam in Donovan’s flat, which allowed her to use the toilet but preventing her from accessing doors or windows. She went onto to suffer nightmares from being restrained in this way.