THE sisters of Josephine Herival have not spoken to her since she walked out of the house where she spent 30 years as a ‘slave’.
Ms Herival (57) was allegedly held captive during this time; however, her two sisters have not made contact with her or the police since her ‘escape.’
“It’s up to Josie to talk to anybody if she wants to,” said one sister when asked yesterday if the pair had spoken since her "release".
"We haven't talked to anybody yet," they added.
Ms Herival was the youngest of three daughters of John Herival, the mathematician who helped to crack the Nazi Enigma code as part of the team at Bletchley Park during World War Two.
However, the family appear to have had little or no contact with her since she joined Aravindan Balakrishnan’s extremist Maoist group in south London in the 1970s and she was cast out of their lives.
She did not feature in her late parents’ wills; their estates were shared between their two older daughters, Mary (60) and Susan (65) who both reside in north London.
A former neighbour of Mr and Mrs Herival who used to live in a north Oxford suburb said that they were not aware the couple had a third child.
"There was never any mention of Josephine” said Julian Hall, a retired judge who lived opposite the family.
"We used to see their other two daughters; they would come down for the usual family get-togethers. But there was never any sign of a third daughter, no mention, nothing."
In obituaries published after Mr Herivel's death in 2011, reference was only made to two daughters.
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on who it has contacted during the investigation.
See More: Contact, Josephine Herivel, Sisters, Slavery
