BRITAIN: The parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman made an emotional public appeal yesterday for the presumed kidnapper of their 10-year-old daughters to let them go.
"Someone's got them. They are not their children. They are our children. We want them back. We miss them so much," Mr Leslie Chapman said, almost 12 hours after a deadline for the abductor to call police came and went.
The strain of the past 12 days was etched on the faces of the girls' mothers as they stared down at the table in front of them, shoulders slumped, barely looking up from the moment they walked into the packed room.
Kevin Wells and Leslie Chapman, the fathers of missing Holly and Jessica, spoke strongly and clearly of their determination to find the girls, seemingly made stronger by the nightmare the families endured when it was feared the bodies had been found.
But the girls' mothers seemed numbed by the ordeal of what they have already been through, and what they must still survive in the days to come.
Ms Sharon Chapman (43) was the first to shake off her torpor as the two women were asked directly how their daughters' disappearance had most affected them.
"The noise level in my house, it's so quiet," she said softly.
"So quiet, even though there's lots of people coming in and out, it's just so quiet and empty." Her voice faded as she spoke and she shook her head, still struck with disbelief that her youngest daughter was not safe at home.
Police stuck to the possibility that the abductor was in the Soham area, a day after they urged local residents to "look at the behaviour" of their family, friends and neighbours.
"I do believe the piece of the jigsaw we are looking for lies in or very near Soham," said Det Chief Insp Andy Hebb.
"We are absolutely convinced that police are doing all they can," said Mr Kevin Wells at a press conference with the Chapmans.
"They are our allies and friends throughout this investigation."
Holly and Jessica's disappearance triggered one of Britain's biggest missing persons' cases when they disappeared on August 4th. They were last seen on a closed-circuit television camera walking past a Soham sports centre, wearing matching red Manchester United jerseys, as the Wells family was getting a barbecue ready.
Manchester United issued a video appeal yesterday for the safe return of the girls, both fans of the Premier League side's David Beckham.
"Our hearts go out to the families," team manager Sir Alex Ferguson said.
"No-one can imagine what this must be like for them. I'm asking you, the public, to support the police and contact them if you have any information."
In televised appeals on Wednesday and Thursday, Det Supt David Back, who is leading the investigation, urged the abductor to call him on a special telephone number sent out as a text message and voice mail to the mobile phone that Jessica carried with her.
But the deadline Supt Beck set of midnight on Thursday came and went without a ring.
"We don't know with certainty that Holly and Jessica have been abducted and therefore are not unduly anxious about the fact that no call has been received," Insp Hebb said.
Holly and Jessica have been described as happy, bright children from solid middle-class families. Most missing children in Britain are either runaways or targets of parental abduction.
More than 400 police have been put on the case, vast swathes of countryside searched, and more than 400 house inquiries carried out. - (AFP, PA)