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But we both know time is running out. No one has seen Lottie for nearly twenty-four hours. I don’t have to be told that if she isn’t found in the next forty-eight, she may never be found at all.
Lottie, three, snatched as her mother attends wedding
FLOWER GIRL STOLEN
THE distraught mother of missing three-year-old Charlotte Martini was clinging to hope she was still alive last night.
As the desperate hunt continued in Florida, her mother relived the terrifying moment she discovered her daughter had vanished from a wedding reception at the upmarket Sandy Beach Hotel on a private barrier island off the coast of St Pete Beach, while she was chatting with guests just yards away.
Alexa Martini, 29, a human rights lawyer, has told family and friends she believes her daughter was snatched just moments after performing her duties as a flower girl at the wedding of family friend Marc Chapman.
Desperate
The child’s grandmother, Mary Johnson, 59, who flew out with her husband, Anthony, 65, to be with Mrs Martini yesterday, described the frantic phone call she received after her daughter discovered her child was missing around eleven o’clock on Saturday night. ‘It’s the call no mother ever wants to make or hear. She said: “Lottie’s been taken, Lottie’s been taken.” She was hysterical. ‘She only took her eyes off her for a split second. It was broad daylight, they were at a wedding. Lottie is the apple of her mother’s eye.’
Florida police yesterday sealed off the beach and patio area by the pool where the wedding reception was held, and forensic specialists combed through the area, looking for clues. An Amber alert – a nationwide appeal to find the missing child – was issued, and all airports and ports have been notified.
But despite a massive search throughout the night involving police, divers and volunteers, there has been no sign of Lottie, who was wearing a pink bridesmaid’s dress and ballet-style shoes when she disappeared.
Thin man
Police have appealed for a ‘thin man’ who was spotted carrying a child near the hotel at the time of Lottie’s disappearance to come forward. Lieutenant Bamby Bates, of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, said they ‘urgently’ needed to speak to the man to rule him out of the inquiry.
Last night, as police helicopters scoured the sea, beach and surrounding area, Lottie’s mother issued a statement. ‘This is a very difficult time for all the family and we are all devastated. At the moment, all we can think about is Lottie’s safe return, and we ask anyone who may know anything to contact the police.’
It’s the second tragedy to strike the family in just over a year. Last August, Mrs Martini’s Italian husband, Luca Martini, 38, was killed in the Genoa bridge collapse while visiting the city, where his wealthy family own an import export coffee business. The sister of the groom, Zealy Cardinal, 32, said: ‘Alex had only just started to recover from losing Luca. She’s a strong woman, but this would knock anybody for six. We’re just praying Lottie comes home soon.’
She said the tot was ‘smart and intelligent, very strong-willed and determined. She’ll be four soon and will start school in the New Year.’
Driven
Alexa Martini, who is considered a rising star at her London-based law firm, Muysken Ritter, had recently moved into a £650,000 townhouse in Balham, south London.
A friend of the family, who asked not to be named, said: ‘There has been some negative spin put on this, with people criticising Alex for leaving Lottie to make her way back from the beach on her own. Alex is very driven. She’s a career woman, and she works hard, so it’s only reasonable she lets down her hair a bit now and again. But it’s ridiculous, she was close by, and there were dozens of people about. Everyone was keeping an eye out for each other. No one was drunk.’
