British police searching for two missing 10-year-old girls are examining the possibility they may have been abducted by someone they met on the Internet.
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The picture taken 90 minutes
before the girls were last seen. |
Police say they are following a "number of lines of inquiry" after examining a computer from one of the youngsters' homes. "Some interesting information has come from Holly's computer but for good operational reasons I cannot go into detail other than to say it has produced some lines of inquiry," said Detective Superintendent David Hankins.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished from Soham, Cambridgeshire, late on Sunday. The officer heading the inquiry, Acting Detective Superintendent David Beck, says two computers are being examined - one from each of the youngster's homes.
Experts have been working on the children's computers, both of which are linked to the Internet, to establish what they were looking at shortly before their disappearance.
Mr Hankins said work was complete on Holly's computer and said it confirmed that the girls using it between 5.11 p.m. and 5.35 p.m. on Sunday.
Mr Hankins made another appeal to anybody who may be holding the girls against their will.
"I would like to make a second appeal to anyone who may be holding Jessica and Holly to reflect on what they've done to these girls and their family and to take steps to return the two girls back to their mothers and fathers," he said.
However, he said that no leniency would be shown to any abductor who took up the plea to give themselves up.
"This is the most heinous offence anyone can imagine and there will be no account taken whatsoever of coming forward and giving themselves up. But we do ask them to search their consciences and reflect on what they have done."
Mr Hankins said the appeal had been made after officers had taken advice from an offender profiler and other experts involved in similar cases.