Payne police join search for girls

Pictures of Holly and Jessica have been posted

Detectives who took part in the hunt for Sarah Payne will today join the search for the missing ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The Cambridgeshire schoolgirls disappeared on Sunday, despite a huge search of the area around their homes.

Breakfast's reporter Jules Botfield was live in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

	:	Holly and Jessica
Maps showing focus of the investigation

click here to watch our interview with Sophie Woodforde.

We also spoke to Sophie Woodforde - spokesperson for the national missings persons helpline. She said:

"Our role is to support families and keep media interest going."

The first 48 hours are critical for young kids who've run away/gone missing - the police have been really good - but the longer it goes, the harder it gets... The national missings persons helpline don't step in for several days - when the first big search has not come to much. Our role is support families - and maintain media interest... which in this case is already there...We have been talking with the police, offering their help and experience, but have not yet had contact with the family. It is not unheard of for children to run away together, but when they do, they tend to be better prepared than walking down the street with some money for sweets, ie they would usually have some of their things with them, clothes or toys...

On Breakfast, the BBC's Jake Lynch who is at Soham had this to say:

As the hours tick away concern mounts for the two little girls who have been missing from home for three days. Police are using every glimmer of daylight scouring the fens around their cambridgeshire homes: a feature of of this agricultural expanse - criss crossed by waterways, police divers are on standby in case any trace of them is found. But the most promising lead remains a sighting of the 2 children matching the description of the girls on Monday morning on the A10 at Little Fetford, the main road leading into Cambridge - 8 miles from there home. The main hope for detectives is some other sighting by the many drivers passing that way at rush hour. Holly and Jessica were wearing Manchester United no 7 shirts like David Beckham. The England captain has issued an appeal for the girls to come home, reassuring them that they are not in any trouble. But the dreadful possiblity is looming ever closer that Holly and Jessica may have been abducted. Today the detectives that led the hunt for Sarah Payne in Sussex are coming to Cambridsgeshire to help on the search. This is a generally quiet part of the world where everyone you speak to seems to know or have some connection with the 2 missing girls and their families. Cambridgeshire police have now embarked on their biggest ever missing persons investigation, they carry the hopes and fears of an entire community on their shoulders.

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The pair had been playing at Holly Wells's house

Police say they have received 1,500 calls from the public so far and are appealing for any more witnesses to come forward.

DCI Martyn Underhill and Det Supt Alan Ladley were involved from the very beginning of the search Sarah, who vanished from a field near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, in July 2000.

Mr Ladley said: "We learned an awful lot in the search for Sarah and it may be that we can offer some ideas and help in this case."

The last confirmed sighting of Holly and Jessica was at 1830BST on Sunday near the girls' homes in the village of Soham, near Cambridge.

A woman reported on Tuesday that she had seen two girls matching their description walking along the A10 towards Cambridge at 0645 BST on Monday.

Detective Superintendent David Hankins, who is leading the investigation, said the huge response from the public was "extremely encouraging" and would give hope to the children's parents and the police and volunteers searching for them.

But he said he was convinced that someone else would have seen them on the A10 on Monday morning and he appealed to them to come forward.

Detectives are sifting through the calls they received, while the nearby Fens have been searched by boat.

Waterways

There are two major lines of inquiry the police are following.

One is that the girls are missing somewhere in the maze of ditches and waterways on the Fens.

Jessica Chapman and her dog Toby

Police divers are on standby but have not been called on.

The other is the sighting on the A10, about eight miles from the girls' home on Monday morning.

On Tuesday, England football captain David Beckham made a personal plea to the girls to come home.

The pair were both wearing Manchester United tops with the player's number on them when they disappeared.

"Please go home," he said. "You are not in any kind of trouble.

"Your parents love you deeply and want you back."

Searches of the countryside around Soham continues

The girls' parents Sharon and Leslie Chapman and Nicola and Kevin Wells, issued a joint statement saying his support was "superb" and it, and the support from local people, had made their lives easier at "this very difficult time".

It is thought Holly and Jessica were on their way to buy sweets when they went missing.

Both girls are described as being white, about 4ft 6in tall and slim. Jessica is tanned and has shoulder-length brown hair while Holly is fair and has blonde hair.

Police have issued a dedicated telephone hotline for the public to call if anyone has any information about the two girls - 01480 422982.