New sightings of missing Rachel

Rachel's sister and mother have appealed for help

Police searching for missing Hull woman Rachel Moran are investigating two new reported sightings of her on the night she went missing.

The new sightings have led police to draft in extra officers as they extend the scope of their search to other parts of the city.

A witness has come forward to say they spotted Miss Moran at approximately 0230GMT on New Year's Day.

Another sighting, approximately an hour later, places Miss Moran heading towards the Bransholme area of Hull some distance from where the search is currently focused.

Rachel Moran was last seen on New Year's Day

The new sightings come after a woman living near a drainage channel where some of Miss Moran's belongings were found said her 10-year-old daughter heard a man and woman arguing.

Miss Moran's family appeared at a press conference on Tuesday to say they are "holding on to the hope" that she will soon be found safe and well two weeks to the day since she went missing.

Sister Vanda, reading a statement, said: "As before, we are trying to cope with our anguish as best we can - together as a family.

"And we are still holding on to the hope that Rachel will soon be found safe and well.

Her absence is most keenly felt with her 22nd birthday approaching on Friday

Vanda Moran

"It has now been two weeks since Rachel's inexplicable disappearance.

"Her absence is most keenly felt with her 22nd birthday approaching this Friday."

"We miss you and we love you."

Mother Wanda said: "She told her father 2003 was going to be her year.

'Very significant'

"Unless we don't know our child as we think we do there is no way she would not have been in touch by now."

Divers have continued to search an open drainage channel close to Miss Moran's home, where personal items including her passport, mobile phone, diary and a training shoe believed to belong to her were found at the weekend.

She spent New Year's Eve with her brother in a Hull pub and was due to stay at her parents' house in Hull Road but had decided to walk home because her two kittens needed feeding.

Humberside Police have released a CCTV image of Rachel close to her parents' home, which was the last confirmed sighting of her.

Detective inspector Paul Davison, who is leading the hunt, described the new sightings as "very significant".

"There is much work to be do on the sightings but they are encouraging," he said.

"They move us much further away from our original thoughts that Rachel was trying to get home."