Sarah police help in Danielle search

Danielle disappeared three weeks ago

Detectives searching for missing schoolgirl Danielle Jones have called on the expertise of officers involved in the Sarah Payne inquiry.

Essex Police have consulted missing persons experts in forces across the UK, including Sussex officers involved in the hunt for eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who was later found murdered.

Danielle, 15, vanished after leaving her home in East Tilbury, Essex, to walk to catch a school bus at 0800BST on 18 June.

Forces develop particular expertise in particular types of inquiry and we're using some of that experience

Detective Superintendent Peter Coltman

Police told BBC News Online they have not received "one piece of positive information that can lead to the whereabouts of Danielle".

Detective Superintendent Peter Coltman, who is heading the inquiry in Danielle's disappearance, said search experts from Sussex, Derbyshire and Bedfordshire police were being consulted.

Sussex Police's head of crime management is also reviewing Essex's police's handling of the case, which Mr Coltman says could help spot new lines of inquiry.

"Forces develop particular expertise in particular types of inquiry and we're using some of that experience," he said.

"This inquiry is based in Essex and being managed by Essex police but we're using whatever expertise we think we be valuable from police UK-wide.

"The officers from Bedfordshire and Derbyshire have particular expertise in search techniques. We've also been in constant touch with detectives involved in the Sarah Payne investigation."

Wasteland searches

Sarah, from Hersham, Surrey, disappeared near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, East Preston, West Sussex, on 1 July 2000.

Her partially-buried body was found 16 days later a short distance from the A29 near Pulborough, West Sussex.

Sarah Payne was found dead last July

An Essex Police spokesman said the force had not dealt with a missing person's case on the scale of Danielle's disappearance in recent years.

Police were continuing to search wasteland, stretches of water and quarries near Danielle's home in East Tilbury, he said.

Mr Coltman, who fears Danielle may have been abducted, said the lack of information about the teenager was forcing officers to think the worst.

'Any vehicle'

Police are investigating reports that a girl matching Danielle's description was seen getting into a blue Transit-type van in Coronation Avenue where she lives.

But Mr Coltman said officers had reasons to believe that might not have been Danielle.

"I fear that there has been so much publicity about that blue van that people might not be giving us vital information because they did not see a blue van," he said.

"I would urge anyone living in the Coronation Avenue area to think whether they could have seen Danielle getting into any sort of vehicle or with anyone on that morning of the 18th.

"It could have been a car stopping as she walked along. She could have been approached as she walked past a parked car. We don't believe she was dragged into a vehicle. We suspect she got into it."

Danielle is 5ft 7in, slim, with blue eyes and long blonde hair and a brace on her teeth.