Missing girls lead 'bolt from blue'

DCI Hebb displayed replicas of the girls' jewellery

By Matt Maclean BBC News Online, in Soham

After a week of frustrating investigation that seemed to be making little headway, the police announcement on Monday of a "significant" development in the search for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman came as a bolt from the blue.

A green car had been seen swerving erratically - the driver apparently struggling with two children - on the A142 from Soham to Newmarket at around the time of the girls' disappearance last Sunday evening.

A taxi driver taking passengers from Ely to Newmarket had followed the dark metallic green saloon, thought to have been either a Peugeot 405 or a Vauxhall Vectra, for several minutes before it turned off into a residential area of Newmarket.

Holly and Jessica have been missing for a week

In that time he saw the driver thrashing his arms about, turning around in his seat to face the back, all the while swerving into verges and across white lines.

And while the witness could not be certain, having only the level of the passengers' heads to judge by, he believed there had been a child in the front passenger seat and another in the back.

Perhaps significantly, a green car was also seen by a number of witnesses in Soham earlier that evening.

	:	Holly and Jessica
Maps showing focus of the investigation

At last, what seemed like a promising lead in this harrowing case, which has seen a week of fruitless searching and appeals for information about two girls who, in the words of the police, had seemed to "vanish off the face of the Earth".

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb also attempted to inform assembled journalists at Monday afternoon's news conference about progress in the investigation so far.

He had brought along replicas of the clothing and jewellery the girls were wearing at the time.

Breakthrough?

But there was only one subject in which the packed hall was interested.

"What time had the taxi driver seen the green car? Were local owners of similar models being asked to come forward? Did the taxi passengers see anything?"

Jessica was wearing trousers similar to these

And, most fervently of all: "Why weren't we told about this sooner?"

DCI Hebb did his best to appease the hacks.

The taxi driver, he said, had only been intervened the night before - Sunday night - although he admitted the initial report of the sighting might have taken some time to process.

A number of lines of inquiry were being pursued as a result, he added.

Eager for a headline, journalists pressed him further.

Would he describe this as a breakthrough in the case?

DCI Hebb was more circumspect.

"It is an important and significant time for the inquiry. And I hope it is a breakthrough," was all he would admit to.

As the conference came to an end, the seated throng sprang into furious action - the quicker the message got out, the sooner the girls could be found and returned to their families.