WHEN Chloe Riley, 14, arrived home from school to find her mother had walked out and left her to fend for herself, she set out to do just that. For a fortnight she carried on as normal, keeping up her schoolwork and telling no one that her mother, Stephanie, an IT teacher, had disappeared.

But when she returned home to find the locks changed, she had to accept that she had been abandoned. Her mother had cancelled the tenancy on the council house they had shared in the Wirral and moved in with her lover. For two months the girl had no contact with her mother, except a text message. She is now being cared for by a half sister, Lisa McLoughlin.

Merseyside Police and social workers from Wirral Council are investigating. A police spokesman said: “We received a report from Wirral social services that Chloe was abandoned by Stephanie. Officers from the family support unit have been holding joint strategic meetings with social workers. We want to talk to Mrs Riley and would appeal to anybody who knows her whereabouts — even Mrs Riley herself — to contact the family support unit.”

Chloe’s father, Robbie Riley, a well-known boxer on Merseyside, died in December, 2002, after a long illness. Friends and well-wishers raised thousands of pounds to meet the family’s expenses, pay for a headstone and Chloe’s travel costs from her home in Birkenhead to St Mary’s College, in Wallasey.

Relatives described how Mrs Riley, 39, changed after the death of her husband. She remodelled herself, with a new hair colour and slimmer figure, and is now said to be living with her 29-year-old lover in Haydock.

Social services staff said that Mrs Riley disappeared in early October. Chloe continued travelling to St Mary’s College, kept up with her homework and housework, but told no one, all the time hoping that her mother would return. When council workmen changed the locks, thinking the house was empty, Chloe tried to telephone her mother but the number had been changed.

Chloe was finally forced to accept her predicament and seek refuge with her half sister. Ms McLoughlin, 29, a care home worker, took her in with the few clothes and possessions she could salvage.

“Chloe has been distraught,” Ms McLoughlin said. “She thought her mum would come back and she didn’t want to bother me.

“Chloe had lost a lot of weight but she is with me now. She is happier and eating well, and doing her homework every night. I suppose that is all that matters. But I am not her mother and it must hurt.

“Every night I hear her crying for mum and dad. What child deserves that?” Ms McLoughlin said: “Chloe lost our dad. Then her mother ran off, and now we both feel abandoned by social services. I am a single parent with two kids under seven. I work three days a week because that is all the childcare I can afford.

“We only have each other and I would do anything for Chloe, but it is a struggle because I have got nothing to give her, except love.”

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