Milly 'not grabbed in street'

Police think Milly's friends could remember vital clues

Detectives looking for missing schoolgirl Amanda Dowler say it is increasingly unlikely she was abducted in the street.

Surrey Police believe the longer the hunt goes on, the more they are sure somebody has a "vital clue" that will lead them to her.

Officers visited fellow pupils of the 13-year-old asking them to tell of any secrets she may have told them which may help in the search.

Amanda, known as Milly, vanished more than a month ago on her journey from school to her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March.

School assembly

On Friday Superintendent Alan Sharp said: "As time goes on the possibility of Amanda being abducted from the street would seem to be far less likely.

"We are positive that someone somewhere knows exactly how and why she disappeared.

Supt Alan Sharp gave pupils information cards

"We need that vital clue which will unlock the mystery of her disappearance."

A Surrey Police spokeswoman later said they were ruling nothing out and Amanda may have been kidnapped by somebody she knew.

Inspector Dave Hollingsworth addressed the morning assembly at Heathside School in Weybridge on Friday, where Milly was a pupil.

Police are also visiting Rydens School, in nearby Walton.

Mr Hollingsworth told pupils: "We want to know about your private thoughts and conversations with Amanda.

Milly sightings

"These might be conversations in or out of school, over Internet chatrooms, or text messages.

"We need to know any secrets that various friends and groups keep. We need to know everything."

He reminded pupils of the unconfirmed sightings of Milly the day she went missing six weeks ago.

Hannah said her friend would not run away

These sightings include reports of a girl seen in Walton talking to a man near a car, a girl seen near a transit van and also a schoolgirl seen crying.

The pupils were given credit-card sized information cards with telephone numbers to call.

He said officers would be interviewing new witnesses and re-interviewing people.

Supt Sharp told the BBC: "Our best source of information has to be with those she spent time with.

"Friends of Amanda have been extremely helpful and honest but there still maybe something that for whatever reason, they have been withholding."

The best friend of the missing 13-year-old has already said that running away did not fit the "personality" of the schoolgirl.

In a television interview for the BBC's 4x4 show Hannah Macdonald said her friend was not the type of person to run away.