BREAKING: Sope Peters’ Mum Visits Durham

The twenty-year-old economics student went missing the night of Tuesday 29 October on a night out with friends in Durham.

Today Sope’s mother, Tolu, visited the spot her son was last spotted, on the banks of the River Wear at Elvet Bridge, a few yards from Klute.

She does not believe her son to have drowned, and she believes that someone has vital information.

“I’m asking one person out there to make a difference in getting Sope home,” Tolu told reporters.

“It can make a difference to our family; it can make a difference to his friends, his community, and his university.

“Every person who knows what it means to be in a family or not to know where your family member is, just take that extra effort and go that extra mile.

“As a family we strongly believe he is alive and is going to come back.”

Tolu flew in from their family home in North Virginia on Wednesday this week.

Sope’s tutors at Hatfield describe him as a popular young man, and his family say he was ‘loving’ student life in Durham.

Sope was reported missing two days after he was last seen. Since then officers from Durham Constabulary have led major searches in the city centre and along the River Wear, assisted by divers from Northumbria Police’s marine unit, crews from Co Durham and Darlington Fire & Rescue and volunteers from local search and rescue teams.

Inspector Paul Anderson said police have to keep an open mind on what had happened to Sope, even though it was unrealistic to expect he was still alive.

“Our main suspicion is that Sope has fallen into the river somehow, however that is only a suspicion and we haven’t closed our mind into what’s happened,” he reported.

Anyone with information is asked to ring 101.