Missing ... an image of Kerry Winter from the Facebook page set up to help find her.
Woman missing in Dubai for three weeks, feared dead
Last seen being attacked, dragged into car
Phone call offers new hope that she`s still alive
THE case of a woman feared dead - amid allegations she was beaten and dumped in the desert by her ex-boyfriend - has taken a new twist.
Relatives now think Kerry Winter, who has not been seen for three weeks, may still be alive and that she is being held hostage in Dubai.
Britain`s The Times reports that her mobile phone was answered for the first time since she went missing, offering new hope to desperate relatives.
The man who answered spoke broken English and almost immediately hung up, according to the UAE`s English-language paper The National.
“We have been trying both her phones since she disappeared and they have been off, until this morning," Ms Winter`s nephew David Giles told the paper.
“We’re sending SMS messages to it constantly. I think it’s one of the people that is holding Kerry.”
The family hoped police could track the mobile and find Ms Winter or the people holding her, The Times said.
South African Ms Winter was last seen being attacked with a baseball bat and forced into her car outside her Dubai home on August 20.
Her ex-boyfriend, a 42-year-old British businessman, is in custody and has reportedly admitted attacking her - but insists she was alive when he left her in the desert.
Dahi Khalfan Tameem, the chief of Dubai police, told media: “The man admitted to hitting the woman and not killing her, but our search for her is on-going."
Relatives of the 35-year-old events executive have set up a dedicated Facebook page in the hunt for her and are trying to raise interest in non-English media.
"We are holding hope that we will find her alive, if there is anyone who lives in Dubai or high profile, local contacts please help!," a note on the page says. "Thank you for your support and God bless you all."
However, police believe the one person who can tell them where Ms Winter is is the man they are holding.
“He is the only suspect in the case, which we are treating as very serious. He knows where she is, that’s a certainty,” an officer told The National.
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