A TEENAGER was being interviewed last night by detectives hunting the killer of schoolgirl Jade Matthews.
He was arrested yesterday morning and spent the day at an undisclosed Merseyside police station being asked about his movements on July 7th when Jade (9) was battered to death on a railway siding.
Police would not say if the boy was the same 13 year old who was arrested and held for 24 hours last week before being released without charge.
Two 17 year old youths and Jade's natural father were also arrested and later released last week.
Jade, who has been described as a pony tailed tomboy, disappeared after going out to play near her home at Eaton Avenue in Bootle, Merseyside, at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 7th.
Hundreds of neighbours and friends from the tight knit community joined police in a desperate search for her that night.
Her body was discovered by a police dog handler IV miles from her home on the little used Bridle Road goods sidings early the next morning. She had been battered to death with part of a wooden window frame.
Several witnesses have spoken of seeing Jade later on Sunday with a 13 year old boy with a mountain bike.
They are among dozens who have come forward in response to appeals for help by police and Jade's mother and stepfather, Mrs Denise Matthews (31) and Mr Stephen Matthews (37).
Detectives in the case were trying to establish exactly when Jade suffered the face injuries she was with before she went on to the railway track where she was battered to death.
A mobile police station set up for five hours close to the murder scene on Sunday afternoon, exactly a week after the crime, brought more than 60 fresh calls, and police are now building up an increasingly detailed picture of the young girl's last movements.
Two new positive sightings of the girl have emerged as officers continue to sift through information from more than 60 people who came forward to the mobile police station on Sunday.
Witnesses have described seeing Jade with a teenager on a mountain bike on the way to the sidings, and one has reported seeing her with a face injury.
Det Supt Geoff Macdonald, leading the murder hunt, said the response from Sunday's operation was "very encouraging", and there were now two further positive sightings of Jade, approaching and on a bridge over Netherton Way, at about 5 p.m.
"Both these times she did not appear to have any injuries," he said. "We are also appealing to anyone who may have seen a little girl in the area with injuries.
"From the information we have gathered, a little girl believed to be Jade had an injury to her forehead at about 5.25 p.m. on the underpass on Netherton Way.
We are particularly anxious to hear from anyone who may have seen a little girl with such injuries at about this time."