Compare this to the PJ.

$500,000 reward for missing schoolgirl13:33 AEST Mon Aug 4 20081 hour 55 minutes agoPrudence Bird of Glenroy, Victoria, missing since 1992.By Edwina ScottVIEWS: 0| FLOCKS: 0| 0 comments so farThe last time Jenny Bird saw her beloved daughter Prue, the teenager was at home getting cordial from the fridge.

"She said: 'I love you Mum,' and she went off to bed," Mrs Bird recalls 16 years later as police announce a $500,000 reward for information on the then 13-year-old's whereabouts.

On February 2, 1992, the day after Prue was last seen by her mother, Ms Bird went to work, leaving her daughter at home in the northern suburb of Glenroy with a family friend.

Prue was last seen in the kitchen preparing lunch, police said.

When the friend returned to the house after packing boxes in the garage, the front door was open and the television was on.

No body has been found despite an extensive police investigation, but Ms Bird is certain her daughter is dead.

A $100,000 reward was offered in 2000 for information relating to Prue's disappearance and suspected murder.

Police have now announced a new reward of $500,000 to solve the cold case.

Ms Bird says she does not believe Prue is still alive.

"I don't live in fairyland," she told reporters.

"The police have been down many tracks and they've all come to nothing."

She describes the ache of not knowing what happened to her daughter as the "cruellest" blow.

"It's like carrying a bag of bricks around with you."

Information leading to Prue's body would allow Ms Bird to bury her with dignity and put her memory to rest, she said.

"I miss her smell, her touch.

"She was naughty at times ... she had a lot of guts to do things.

"She'd be 30 now. I think would she be married now. Would she have children ...?

"Every day I think about her."

Ms Bird says the strain of Prue's disappearance has torn her family apart, affecting her two other children now aged in their 20s.

She pleaded for people with information to have the courage to make an anonymous phone call.

Detective Inspector Steve Clark of Victoria Police said Prue disappeared in "particularly unusual" circumstances.

The significant size of the reward, hopefully, would prompt someone to come forward, he said.

"We'll continue to throw resources at it and we won't give up hope.

"We're only a phone call away from solving a job like this, it's particularly emotive."

Det Insp Clark also urged anyone with information they might consider insignificant to phone Crime Stoppers as it could be a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

Under a deal with the Department of Public Prosecutions, people with information may be protected from prosecution depending on the nature of the information supplied, he said.