Mother's plea for news of daughter who went missing after attending fringe church service

The mother of a loving and dedicated midwifery student who went missing after attending a church service has made a moving appeal for information about her daughter’s whereabouts.

Joy Morgan, 21, a student at the University of Hertfordshire, disappeared after attending a service of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, a small black sect with its origins in the United States.

No trace of her has been seen since and detectives are "growing increasingly concerned for her safety" and fear she may “have come to harm”.

Joy was last seen at a service held by the Israelite Church of God on Boxing Day in Ilford, east London.

Police said her phone was active until the next day and her bank card has not been used since.

Murder detectives subsequently questioned a 40-year-old man from London in connection with her disappearance. He has since been released on bail pending further investigation.

Now Joy’s mother, Carol Morgan, has spoken of her fears for her daughter, saying it was completely out of character for her to disappear.

Pleading for news Ms Morgan said: “I stay awake until I’m so tired that I can’t sleep. Then you wake up in the morning and for a minute everything is ok, until you remember.

“None of us believe this. I just don’t think it can be real. On February 12 my daughter was 21 and I don’t know where she is.”

Addressing Joy directly she said: “Please come home, please phone someone. Talk to anyone just let us know you’re alive, even if you don’t want to talk to me. I just want to know you’re alive and well, nothing else.

“I love you Joy, we miss you so much. I can’t put into words how I feel. I have to believe you’re ok.”

She added: “Joy is a beautiful caring person. She’s always doing things for other people. She’s always smiling, she’s the smiler out of the family.”

Police described Joy as a “focused and determined” student who was enjoying her course and looking forward to a hospital placement in the new year.

As part of the investigation, officers want to trace a distinctive Honda car that she regularly travels in.

They said that following the church meeting Joy went to stay with an associate in Cricklewood, north London, who thought she was returning to Hertfordshire the next day. She was last in contact with university colleagues via WhatsApp on December 27.

Ms Morgan said she last heard from her daughter earlier that month, but did not become unduly concerned until her landlord rang on February 7 to say she had not paid her rent

“I just thought well she’s been doing a placement with night shifts and is busy,” she said. "I was just filling in answers to my unanswered questions to make me feel better.

“It was only when her estate agent phoned and said that she hadn’t paid her rent that I knew something was wrong. I said ‘that’s not Joy’ and called the police straight away.

“The police said there were clothes flung all over the place in her room and that there had been a violent argument.”

Joy joined the Israelite Church of God, which claims that what it calls "Black Israelites" are superior to white people, at the age of 18.

It has been described by the respected US-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) - which monitors hate groups - as black supremacist and "the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement".

Speaking from the family home in Battersea, south London, where photographs of Joy decorate the walls, Ms Morgan said her daughter may have joined the group because the family were going through a difficult period.

“My ex-partner died and I got MS. It was like she was looking for something,” she said.

Ms Morgan, 51, added: “It’s an extreme church. I don’t see anything positive about that religion, the dictatorship of it - who you can talk to, who you can associate with.

“She wanted to join a church but she went to the wrong church. If people of all colours can’t go to a church, that’s not a church I want to go to. That’s not me. It's a racist church.”

Hertfordshire police said the church, which it did not name “for operational reasons”, formed part of its inquiries into Joy’s disappearance.