Robert Duff grew up in Kentish Town

THE daughter of a man who has been missing for nearly four years has spoken for the first time of the heartache of not knowing if he is dead or alive.

Stephanie Duff, 21, whose father Robert disappeared in January 2013, appealed to people who were with him on the day he went missing to finally come forward and reveal what happened.

The family of Mr Duff, a former William Ellis pupil who grew up in Kentish Town, raised the alarm when he failed to turn up to a celebratory meal marking Stephanie’s 18th birthday.

The last communication he made was a voicemail message believed to have been accidentally left on his daughter’s phone on January 12, 2013 – the last time he was seen.

Ms Duff said two voices, one a woman and the other a Scottish-sounding man, could be heard on the message.

She said: “He was with people that night and we haven’t heard from them. If anyone has information they can come to me instead of the police.”

Mr Duff, who was 37 when he went missing, lived in Ingestre Road in his youth, trained as a metal engineer and performed in Camden Town bars and clubs under the name DJ Flight. He was living in Kilburn at the time of his disappearance.

Police have trawled security cameras, but have been able to find no trace of him since he was captured on CCTV withdrawing cash from an ATM in Holloway Road shortly before he went missing.

His bank account and phone, which have been monitored by police, remain untouched. Scotland Yard said this week that they are continuing to treat the case as a missing persons investigation and have not opened a murder file.

Ms Duff said: “We do think something bad has happened, but we don’t know what.”

She added: “People say to me he might have gone off, but he wasn’t like that. It’s out of character to not turn up to a birthday meal. We were very close. We spoke daily.”

She said her 13-year-old sister Charlotte, Mr Duff’s youngest daughter, had been hardest hit by the uncertainty.

“She’s at the point where she needs her dad around,” she said. “All the family are struggling to come to terms with it, but she can’t get her head around it at all.

“She texts his phone. She listens to his voice messages. She says prayers for him. We all do. We have to be hopeful, but it’s so hard, not knowing if he is dead or alive.”

A young Stephanie and Charlotte with their father Robert

She added: “It’s getting harder if anything. It’s not getting easier [with the passage of time]. Sometimes we have thought we have seen him in the street and when you realise it’s not him, it just brings it all back.”

The disappearance of her father was the second tragedy to rock Ms Duff’s young life. Her best friend, Melanie McCarthy McNamara, was shot dead aged 16 in 2012, just months after moving to Dublin from Queen’s Crescent.

She said: “It’s affected me really badly. It was a year before that Melanie died. I haven’t been the same since. I sit here and think about that and think: ‘Is this real?’ It’s something I’d read and go: ‘Imagine that. Poor girl’.”

Ms Duff, who continues to place missing posters in Archway shop windows, said she would “never give up” the search for her father, adding: “I would walk the streets every night if I thought I could find him.

“He’s a family man. We need him. Nothing is the same. Family events, Christmas. Nothing can be enjoyed now. I dread Christmas.”

In a message to her father, Ms Duff said: “If you are out there, we just want to know you are safe and we love you. If you are in any kind of trouble we can help you. Me and Charlotte and the rest of family love and miss you and just want you home. We will never give up, I promise.”

Ms Duff said anyone with information could contact her, without involving the police, by phoning 07982 946 334 or the charity Missing People on 116 000.

Mr Duff is described as white, with brown hair and of slim build.

He was known to frequent Camden and Holloway.