THE County Gazette reported yesterday how the father of murdered schoolgirl Genette Tate had died without ever finding out what had happened to her.

John Tate, 77, has gone to his grave without the answers he sought.

Mr Tate, who was living in Manchester, suffered a major stroke and a number of other health issues before he passed away in a hospital in the city last month.

He was haunted by the disappearance on August 19, 1978, of Genette, who was born in Taunton, where she had lived in Wedlands and attended Priorswood Primary School.

Genette vanished in a country lane while delivering newspapers in her home village of Aylesbeare, near Exeter.

The chief suspect was child killer Robert Black, but he died before he could be charged by police.

Mr Tate even wrote to Black unsuccessfully pleading with him to reveal what he had done with Genette's body.

In one of the photos, Mr Tate, who lived in West Buckland for a period, appears in a poignant photo with his daughter, the last time the two were pictured together.

READ MORE: John Tate's death, 42 years after Genette vanished.

There are further photos of Mr Tate returning to the scene of his daughter's disappearance on the 25th anniversary in 2003.

There is even an image of a police reconstruction featuring Genette's bicycle at the spot where it was found after she vanished.

Photos courtesy of Nick Irving, of Irving of Exeter.