Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) has received heartbreaking news about

missing daughter April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) in Emmerdale – but

everything is not as it seems. The teenager vanished on Christmas Eve,

leaving her family devastated. A huge search operation has since ensued, with the police searching the house to see if they could find any evidence relating to the case. Through analysis of the family’s devices, they found a secret social media account, which April had been using under an alias.

A video showed her drunk and disorderly, heading to a party. To make matters worse, she had also uncovered texts between her dad and his ex-wife Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy). With no leads to her whereabouts, the village continued their desperate effort to bring her home. That all came to a halt in today’s instalment, when Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) delivered some horrific news from his first day working at Hotten General’s emergency department. The youngster was desperate to make a good first impression, and cautiously hovered around his new colleagues to gain experience of working in the pressured environment.

Suddenly, a stab victim was brought in on a stretcher and he overheard them say a bank card bad been found with the name April Windsor written on it. He crumbled as he picked up the victim’s purse from the floor, and it contained a picture of his missing neighbour. Realising that the victim must be April, he panicked and dialled in a call to a horrified Marlon, who rushed over to the hospital with wife Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry).

When his superiors realised what he’d done, Jacob received a slap on the wrists whilst the devastated couple were ushered into a family room. The doctors worked tirelessly to save the girl, but had to break the news that she had passed away during surgery. The floor fell from beneath Marlon’s feet as he realised he’d failed in his efforts to save his daughter.

Jacob was mortified, and pondered whether the job was right for him. Later, Marlon and Rhona were told by family liaison officer Anna (Rhea Bailey) that they would have to give a formal identification of April’s body. It was at this moment they realised that they didn’t recognised the deceased girl. The doctors tore strips off Jacob for his careless behaviour, and told him that they would have to wait to find out whether a complaint would be lodged against him. Not only did he break patient confidentiality, but he also gave a false identification. Rhona couldn’t believe that he had led them astray, but Marlon reasoned that he was only doing what he thought was best. Will she be the one to report him?