Police quiz two over missing girls

Ian Huntley and girlfriend Maxine Carr live in Soham

Police in Soham have finished questioning a school caretaker and his girlfriend over the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Ian Huntley, 28, and Maxine Carr, 25, had been taken to separate police stations in Cambridgeshire on Friday afternoon, to be interviewed about the missing 10-year-olds, who vanished on 4 August.

The girls are best friends

But shortly after 2230 BST, after seven hours of questioning, police announced the couple were "no longer with officers".

The couple will not be returning to their home, which is the subject of a detailed search using what police described as highly sensitive equipment.

The house was one of the last places the best friends were seen, as well as nearby Soham College where Mr Huntley works.

By Friday evening, the search had widened to take the girls' school where Ms Carr worked until recently.

Name change

A police helicopter could be seen scouring the area overhead to take "observation photographs" to assist the search. A low loader also arrived to take away a vehicle from the scene.

Cambridgeshire police spokesman Matt Tapp confirmed a "detailed search" was under way of a house in Soham on Friday evening.

He added: "In the light of developments in the last few hours, a decision has been taken to extend the area that will be searched by a number of teams of trained police officers from this force, from other forces, with assistance from experts in their field."

David Flanagan, a former Flying Squad detective, now of the National Missing Person's Helpline, told the BBC he believed the search was spurred by "new evidence that had come to light recently".

Mr Huntley was already a witness in the inquiry having been the last person known to have talked to the girls.

It emerged on Friday night that he changed his name two or three months ago. Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman Bob Pearson confirmed the switch and said it had been for "for family reasons".

Mr Huntley had started at the college about nine months ago when he was known as Ian Nixon.

	:	Holly and Jessica
Maps showing focus of the investigation

The couple gave police permission to search their detached house in the college grounds, and both agreed to give witness statements.

The intensive police search is expected to last several days.

An expert from Bedfordshire police who was involved in the hunt for missing Surrey teenager Millie Dowler and missing Essex teenager Danielle Jones has been called in to advise.

Ms Carr worked as a teaching assistant in Holly and Jessica's class at St Andrews Primary School until the end of last term.

Mr Hebb stressed that speaking to the pair was "one of many active and interesting lines of inquiry".

'Conversation with girls'

The house being searched was where Mr Huntley told police he last spoke to the girls as they passed in front of his house at 1815 BST, shortly before the last confirmed sighting of them on 4 August.

They had asked after Miss Carr, he said.

"I just saw them for a few minutes. I don't know where they came from but they walked off down the road towards the library."

Police are searching the couple's house in Soham

Mr Huntley said they seemed "as happy as Larry".

"I must have been one of the last people to speak to them. You can't help thinking about it."

Ms Carr told reporters last week how Holly had given her a card with a poem inside on the last day of school.

The couple's neighbour Lorraine Barnes, 30, told reporters on Friday that the couple had only been there a few months, but seemed "very nice and genuine people".

Soham Village College principal Howard Gilbert said the college itself had been searched four times already.

Parents' plea

Earlier at the college, Holly and Jessica's parents issued an emotional plea for anyone holding their children to give them back.

Jessica's father, Leslie, told a news conference: "Someone's got them. They are not their children. They are our children. We want them back. We miss them so much."

They families clinging to the hope that the girls are still alive.

The worst night for the families so far came last Tuesday when police excavated two mounds of earth near Newmarket and announced the next morning that there was no trace of the girls.

Community meeting

Police have said they are convinced the "piece of the jigsaw" they are looking for is in Soham.

Soham Village College has been used extensively by police to update the media on developments in the investigation.

Soham college is near to the girls' home

On Tuesday night they held a community meeting there to keep Soham residents up-to-date.

Meanwhile, the girls' favourite team, Manchester United, joined in the appeal.

The squad lined up in team shirts to record a plea from manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, urging people to come forward with information.

The latest developments follow a midnight deadline, set for any abductor to get in touch, passed without contact.