'Minuscule' hope left that Leah Croucher is alive, say her heartbroken parents in Milton Keynes

And they have admitted they have only a 'minuscule piece of hope' left that the 21-year-old will one day come home, safe and sound.

"Are we silly for still hoping and dreaming?" said her father John, a taekwondo instructor.

Today is particularly heartbreaking for the Crouchers as it marks the one year anniversary of Leah's brother Haydon taking his own life,

Haydon, 24, had been tortured by the lack of progress in finding his sister, an inquest heard last week.

Leah was 19 when she disappeared while walking from her Emerson Valley home to work on February 15 2019.

Police launched a wide-scale investigation and search was in an attempt to find her but so far there has not been a single conclusive clue.

Her family are convinced she was not suicidal and did not vanish alone or out of choice, They are certain somebody has information about her disappearance and have appealed repeatedly for them to come forward and tell the truth.

John said: "There's too little information about the circumstances that day. Far too much pain, sadness and sorrow. Too much worry. Is the minuscule piece of hope we have left that one day you come home, safe and sound pointless?"

He added: "You and Haydon are the last thing we think of at night, the first thing in the morning. It's still so impossible to understand how one day life was great for all of us. And then......everything fell apart.

"Our world was and is still destroyed, more so than ever. Today we lay more flowers at Haydon's grave, wishing we had news to tell him. All we have to offer him is the usual, leads are still coming in, people still think they are seeing your sister, Leah. But none of them are her. We can hear his voice in our heads, glumly saying" none of them are ever her.

We miss you both so much. Everyone misses you so much. It still hurts now as much as it did 21 months ago. We still have that lead feeling in our chests. Heavy hearted we drag ourselves through each day. The whole family are struggling with the pain of your disappearance."

John has appealed for people to continue to look to Leah and share posts about her on social media as far and wide as they can."

"Please to everyone who reads this, don't think we have forgotten about our children because we haven't posted often lately. We are just hurting so much. It's difficult to sit here and write, putting our pain into words. We still need your help. We still need you to look for our beautiful Leah.

"When out shopping during lock down, please look for our little girl. She is out there somewhere. We still need you to please share this post. Help us finally get some news about Leah to take to Haydon. Please."

Anybody with any information about what happened to Leah should call police on 101 or ring Crimestoppers charity anonymously and free on 0800 555 111.