the woman I met was hardly a criminal mastermind', by the reporter who interviewed her
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When someone asks me about the time I interviewed Karen Matthews during the disappearance of her daughter Shannon, the first thing they say is: "Did you believe her?"
I did.
I was a young journalist on my first paper, the Dewsbury Reporter, and the cameras, video vans, hardened national hacks and TV news anchors vying for exclusives were an eye opener.
It didn't take long for them to start dragging Dewsbury down. The town and its people were trashed in the national press.
(Photo: Daily Mirror)
Yet on the estate, friendly people welcomed me in and told me Moorside was a nice place to live, where everyone on the council house waiting list hoped they'd find a home.
They described how they'd been out looking for Shannon every night. People of all ages were putting posters up, searching the streets, meeting in the community house, finding a way to support Karen and her family.
The nationals camped out up there, but the Reporter had a small team and it was hard to compete.
(Photo: Daily Mirror)
Even so, we went back day after day hoping to speak to Karen. She never answered the door. A friend or a police officer always turned us away.
Two weeks after Shannon went missing, I went up and saw Karen's partner Craig Meehan seeing a reporter out.
I ran over and, explaining I was a reporter from the local paper, asked if he and Karen would speak to me.
Craig agreed and told me to come back in an hour, so, together with our chief photographer Ken Mann, I went back up, and Craig let me in.
Children's shoes lined the stairs. The living room was to our left. Painted sky blue, it had a wallpaper border I guessed the children had been picking at.
(Photo: Daily Mirror)
Pictures of the children covered the walls, and there was a portrait of Shannon, with her sister and brother on the chimney breast.
A friend played games on the computer in the corner, while children sat on the sofa watching TV.
Karen was sitting on a brown leather chair. Craig crouched next to her, and she leant on his shoulder.
I was expecting Karen to break down during our interview. I'd seen her desperate television appeal after Shannon went missing and I thought she'd be in an even worse state.
(Photo: Daily Mirror)
But her eyes were vacant and distant. She barely said a word.
Karen stared at me as I asked about her feelings as a mother, then looked at Craig who answered almost every question.
I'd worried they might feel the camera snapping away was intrusive, but they barely seemed to notice.
It was strange, but I guessed Karen didn't know how to cope. Perhaps the doctor had to sedate her.
(Photo: Daily Mirror)
After an hour, in which I'd only had a handful of words from Karen, we went on our way.
Looking back over my notes, it was hard to write the story. Karen had said so little.
She'd told me she had barely been able to enter Shannon's bedroom since she went missing.
She said: "We know she's alive. All we can keep thinking is she's safe and well. Her not being here - it's just not right not hearing her voice. I feel empty without her.
"We were just a normal family but now we don't feel like a family. Something has been taken out. I'm so glad I've got Craig - he's been like a rock for me.
"The little ones don't understand it but her older brother is finding it hard to come to terms with. Courtney just keeps calling out for her."
Shannon was found the following Friday. Someone phoned us saying they'd seen a little girl being brought out of a flat in Batley Carr.
The Moorside estate was swamped with journalists, helicopters flying overhead. We were all waiting for Karen and Shannon to come home - but of course, that never happened.
(Photo: PA)
Years have passed and I've often thought about that interview. Why did I believe them?
But although Karen's behaviour was odd that day, it wasn't suspicious. And the woman I met was hardly a criminal mastermind. The actions of those involved in Shannon's disappearance were used by the national press to vilify an entire town.
But the BBC 1 drama The Moorside has shone a light on what those of us in Dewsbury already knew.
A good place and good people who wanted nothing more than to get Shannon home - and they did everything they could to find her.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Huddersfield Examiner