THE boyfriend of missing Macclesfield mum Zoe Simpson has gone on TV to tell the nation he believes his partner is still alive despite family and police fears that she was murdered.

Karl Richardson, 33, spoke out in a Granada crime documentary "Case Unsolved" in which he told millions of viewers: "Who says she is dead?

"To me she's just a missing person. Where's the proof that she's dead?

"How can they honestly say that she's dead, that she's been murdered? They don't know this. They know as much as I know."

In the programme, detectives - who believe there is a conspiracy of silence in Macclesfield by witnesses who know what really happened to 24-year-old Zoe - made a fresh appeal for the killer to give himself up almost five years to the day since she vanished without trace.

Detective Superintendent Andy Tattersall, who is leading the murder inquiry and who spearheaded an intense investigation within the town, told viewers: "We are convinced that there are people out there, perhaps very close to Zoe, who knows what's happened to her, and where Zoe is.

"We believe she is dead. It's an ongoing murder investigation."

He added: "Zoe has left a mother and a brother and of course two young children. It's now time, it's years on and it's now time that people search their consciences and come forward."

Zoe disappeared with neither money nor belongings in 1996 leaving her two children alone.

She had been living in Longsight with boyfriend Karl with whom she had had a turbulent relationship for ten years.

Zoe's mum Carol said on the programme: "I don't think she's alive. There's no body. This is the worst thing.

"If there was a body we could put an end to everything, and bury her and everything, but there's nothing."

Zoe's brother Tim added: "I accept that she's dead and that's it - but I still want justice.

"I want justice for Zoe and for her children. I want the person that killed her to be brought to justice.

"I want the family to be able to lay her to rest."

Detective Constable Chris Mellors revealed that hopes remained alive to find the killer.

Two years after her disappearance intelligence led police to a scrap yard in Stoke-on-Trent where they carried out a painstaking search of a huge shredder.

They believe the car-crushing machine was used to dispose of Zoe's body.

After sifting through more than two tons of material they found minute items which they believe could help solve the mystery.

DC Mellors said: "There were some finds which even to this date technology cannot yet identify.

"They are such small fragments of material, smaller than a pin-head.

"We will keep possession of these and as technology advances, who knows?"

"Case Unsolved" which goes out over four weeks on Granada at 7.30pm every Tuesday attempts to lift the lid of real life murder mysteries.