By Katie Archer
A MISSING mother-of-three obsessed with rap star Eminem is feared to have either killed herself or left the country in search of her idol.
Susan Strentz, 43, had been taking anti-depressants to help her deal with the pain of divorce and losing custody of her youngest child.
She tried to hang herself three years ago and relatives are now desperate to track her down in case she tries to do the same again.
Miss Strentz is last known to have been on the Valley Park industrial estate in Croydon on Monday night.
The missing mother had started using cannabis over the last year and when she divorced her husband of two years, Jamshed Bruchra, he was given full custody of their five-year-old son Jai, with Susan only allowed to see him on Saturdays.
Her brother Ian Strentz said: “She had fallen in with the wrong crowd and started dressing like a teenager, and became increasingly obsessed with the rapper Eminem. She would come up to you and just start rapping for no apparent reason. I was embarrassed to walk down the street with her.”
Susan had been living in temporary accommodation in Park Hill Road, Carshalton, with her eldest son Lloyd, 15, for the last three months.
Lloyd had seen his mother earlier on Monday and she had also been to the house of daughter Katrina, 16, to drop off clothes, her purse, jewellery and other personal possessions.
Ian said: “She told me to give some money to my kids for her as well. It was as if she was saying goodbye.”
Although they did not see her again, Susan sent a flurry of text messages to family members –texting Katrina 30 times and her brother 15 times.
Ian said: “It got annoying because the messages were coming through every minute, so I switched my phone off for a while. I couldn’t understand a lot of them because she’d written it in rap language, but the last one at 9.15pm said to say goodbye to our family and that she was going to kill herself at midnight.”
But police managed to trace Susan’s phone moving through the Valley Park industrial estate at 12.15am, suggesting Susan was either still alive or someone had taken her phone.
Ian said: “She’d suffered a nervous breakdown and been through hell and back, and the drugs hadn’t helped her state of mind. She became heavily involved in the rap scene, dressing like a rapper, going to Croydon club Granary’s and writing her own lyrics which she sent to Eminem.
“She was always on the phone to America trying to speak to him and she went to see him at Milton Keynes and a small gig in London that only a few people went to.”
It was at this London concert that Susan handed her own lyrics to Eminem and became convinced that the raps she had been writing for him were used in one of his songs.
Susan’s brother became increasingly worried about the company she kept.
He said: “Just before she moved into her temporary accommodation she was staying with three Portuguese men who were about 18 or 19 and living in Sutton. She was apparently seeing one of them but when she refused to marry him they threw her out of the flat. She lost all her old, real friends because she totally lost the plot over the last year.
“Everyone who cared about her has lost touch with her – our brothers Chad and Deke don’t speak to her and our mum Carol, who is 62, had fallen out with her and wouldn’t tell her where she lived because Susan kept swearing at her. But she just really needs some help and support.”
When Ian went to his sister’s house in search of clues to her whereabouts, he found a letter she had written to their 84-year-old grandmother in India, saying she was the only person she could talk to.
Ian also found her passport had gone, sparking fears that she may be trying to flee the country in search of hero Eminem.
He said: “She always said that one day she would just get up and go, and if she’s alive I think she’ll be on her way to America. It’s been a few days now and I’m getting quite worried about her.”
Police are tracking Susan’s passport and phone, and have put credit on her phone so she can call someone to let them know where she is, as all calls are going to voicemail.
DS Gary Welsh, of Sutton police, said: “Susan’s phone was last traced to the Valley Park industrial estate in the area of Asda and Ikea.
“We are persisting with inquiries and tracing her last movements. We are very concerned for her welfare.”
* Anyone with information should call DS Welsh on 020 8649 0744.