[7][8] Approximately 25 minutes after the discovery, Tate's parents returned to Barton Farm Cottage from a shopping trip to Exeter.

[11][n 2] Devon and Cornwall Police discounted the possibility of Tate running away from home, as at the time of her disappearance she had no personal possessions with her beyond the clothing she was wearing.

[14][15] Eyewitnesses reported seeing a maroon Triumph or similar vehicle upon Within Road at around the time of the disappearance, and police issued a photofit picture of a man they wanted to question in relation to the incident.

[16] Despite the police investigation and a search of the surrounding countryside involving thousands of volunteers, Tate's disappearance remains unexplained.

[17] Robert Black, a serial killer convicted in 1994 for similar crimes involving the abduction and murder of young girls, was questioned by Devon and Cornwall Police in connection with the Tate case.

[18][n 3] The Crown Prosecution Service decided in August 2008 that insufficient evidence existed to charge Black with Tate's murder.

[22] Devon and Cornwall Police reviewed the case in June 2014 in the hope of finding sufficient real evidence to prosecute Black.

[24] The file was submitted in April 2016, and the Crown Prosecution Service said that due to Black's death, there would be no posthumous decision to charge him with Tate's murder.

[25] In August 2018, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, John Tate made a further plea for information about the case, saying, "I am not even 100% sure Black did it.

He said that his rapidly declining health meant that he could no longer make his annual trip from Manchester to Aylesbeare, and that his final wish was to give his daughter a dignified Christian burial and to be buried alongside her.