POLICE IN southern Spain have again stepped up their search for missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick (16) following the reported sighting of clothes she was wearing when she went missing three months ago.
Interior ministry sources have confirmed that a detailed search has taken place of an extensive area in the Sierra de Las Nieves hills, a conservation spot about 20 minutes' drive from Mijas, after a local man contacted the authorities to say he thought he had seen the black Diesel T-shirt worn by Amy at the bottom of a ravine.
The man said he noticed a "foul odour" in the area. Civil guard teams with tracker dogs and backed by a helicopter have combed the rugged terrain for several days but have failed to identify the exact spot where the T-shirt was believed to have been seen.
In a further development, Hilario López, the interior ministry's senior official in Malaga, revealed on Monday that information concerning a second car possibly linked to Amy's disappearance was also being investigated.
Mr López noted that "the longer Amy remains missing, the more unlikely it is that her disappearance was voluntary".
Amy was last seen on January 1st, when she left a friend's house to walk to her home in Mijas-Costa.