Police will say only they are still investigating, but on the eve of the six-month anniversary of Kerran Baker’s disappearance, her family is in agony and her father is considering a March trip to George Town.

“Things are not too good, not going so well,” said father Wilmot Anthony, from his Kingston home yesterday.  ”It’s ruined our lives.”

Mr Anthony, Ms Baker’s mother Sandra Anthony and sister Toney-Ann Anthony arrived in the Cayman Islands immediately after the July disappearance, returning home empty-handed after a fruitless week.

Sister Toney-Ann told iNews Cayman yesterday: “It’s been rough. It’s been very hard, but we try to carry on. It’s very frustrating. We are still waiting, but we are still hoping.”

Turning 19 in just a couple of days, the high-schooler shared her family’s anguish.

“We need closure,” Mr Anthony said. “We did not enjoy our Christmas holiday. She used to come home every Christmas. It was like we didn’t have a Christmas.”

Ms Baker, 25, worked as a nurse’s assistant in George Town for several years before she vanished on Saturday, 30 July, following a 7pm shopping trip to the airport Foster’s Food Fair. Friends reported her absence the next morning. A subsequent police search of her Arrow Drive, Bodden Town home turned up a handbag and groceries on the counter, indicating a sudden departure.

On Monday, 1 August, her white Honda Civic was found across the street from Pedro Castle, but both a public and police search of the area, including nearby waters, tuned up no more than a clutch of papers.

On 17 November, police finally arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the disappearance, but quickly released him without charge.

Yesterday, police said only the case was “still under investigation”.

“We arrested someone, but he was not charged. He was released on police bail while police continue to investigate,” a spokeswoman said, declining to comment on the progress or timing of and development.

If officials uncover sufficient evidence, she said, “the file goes to the Legal Department”, where the Director of Public Prosecutions decides if charges are warranted. If not, the suspect is released

Cayman Islands police, she said, were in regular contact with the family who were “fully updated”.

“To be honest, I don’t really know what to say or what to think. The police are in touch yes, but,” Mr. Anthony said yesterday, and repeating a previous complaint, “things are moving really slowly and need to move faster.

“They said the investigation needed more time, and we are still watching, waiting, but wonder what’s going on.”

Cayman police had told the family no details: “We don’t really see this going anywhere,” he said, suggesting “I might come over in the first part of the year, maybe in March, to push things a little faster.” Mr Anthony worked more than 11 years in George Town as a tour-bus driver, returning to Jamaica early last year.

“It’s a big question and we need closure. It’s ruined our lives because we are so stressed,” he said.

Mother Sandra, he said was “somewhere off-island” and unavailable, but Toney-Ann echoed her father’s despair.

“We all feel the same way and won’t stop until we know what really happened. They won’t give us details. We have no sense of closure, that this is resolved. They are still waiting and we are still hoping. It’s just been too long,” she said.