THE murdered schoolgirl, Jade Matthews, could have been seen with a teenage boy on a mountain bike near the spot where she was battered to death on a railway line, police said last night.
The fresh clue in the hunt for the nine-year-old's killer came as her father, Mr Alan Priest (34), was released without charge after 30 hours of questioning by detectives over his daughter's death.
As Jade's mother, Mrs Denise Matthews (31), made an emotional appeal for help in finding her killer, detectives revealed she could have been seen at an under-pass a short distance away from the railway sidings in Bootle, Merseyside, with the boy aged about 13.
A girl answering her description was on the seat of a black mountain bike being pushed by the brown haired boy of medium build.
The girl had a slight injury to her forehead and was seen to have blood on her teeth, said Det Supt Geoff MacDonald, the man leading the hunt.
"We don't know who she is. It may be Jade, it may be another girl," he said. "We are very anxious to trace her or anyone who saw her.
Police are still seeking three boys, aged nine to 14 seen on the railway line at about 8 p.m. on Sunday, around the time of the murder.
It was also revealed yesterday that two 17-year-old youths were being questioned after being arrested last night. Police stressed they were being held as part of the routine investigation.
As detectives stepped up the hunt, Mrs Matthews said her daughter's killers must be caught before anyone else came to harm.
In a brave but tearful appeal to a packed room at a news conference Mrs Matthews, married to Jade's stepfather, Mr Stephen Matthews (37), for three years, said: "Someone has to be caught for this because I want no other woman or family to go through what ray family has been through.
She also asked for anyone with suspicions about people they knew to come forward.
With a police liaison officer and her grandmother by her side she paid a moving, emotional tribute to her tomboy daughter. "Jade lived life to the full," said Mrs Matthews, between tears.
"She loved sport. She loved kids. She just loved to be involved with people."
Jade met her death some time after leaving home to play outside her house in Eaton Avenue, Bootle, with three friends after tea on Friday. Det Supt MacDonald said she had apparently just left her friends almost immediately after leaving the house.