POLICE chiefs were travelling to Germany today to demand a criminal investigation into the disappearance of a 24-year-old student nurse.

Senior detectives from Kent were visiting Aachen in the hope of persuading a state prosecutor to authorise a new search for missing Louise Kerton, whose sister, Fran, lives in Fulford, York.

Fran, a University of York lecturer, has told the Evening Press that her family believes her sister is dead. But she has spoken of frustration at the German police force's refusal to treat her disappearance as anything other than a missing person case.

She said today: "In Germany, to get it made into a proper crime investigation you have to go through the Prosecutor's office, and they say there is no evidence of a crime at the moment.

"The British police are going with a dossier of evidence saying there has been a crime and that this disappearance is out of character for Louise. Hopefully that will convince them to move the investigation forward."

Louise, from Broadstairs, Kent, was last seen at Aachen Station on July 30 last year.

The assistant chief constable of Kent Police, Mike Bowron, and the senior investigating officer in the case, Det Chief Inspector Brian Roberts, will discuss the case with German police chiefs, the state prosecutor and the British Consulate.

Updated: 11:28 Thursday, April 25, 2002