500 JOIN SEARCH FOR MISSING GIRLS
Parents in torment over vanished Man Utd children
By Lorraine Fisher
FIVE hundred volunteers last night joined the desperate search for two missing 10-year-old girls in David Beckham replica shirts.
Police and the parents of best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman urged them: "Please phone home."
Detectives said they were "extremely concerned" by the disappearance of the pair on Sunday night after a barbecue at Holly's home.
HAPPY: Missing Holy Wells
The girls were said to be happy, intelligent children who have never gone missing before. It is thought they had no money and no change of clothes.
Detectives had hoped to trace them via Jessica's mobile phone.
But there was no reply and it went dead at 1.30am yesterday. Officers arranged for it to be "topped up" in case credit had run out.
The girls' distraught parents, from the Cambridgeshire market town of Soham, made an emotional appeal to them and assured them they would not be in trouble.
INTELLIGENT: Missing Jessica Chapman
Jessica's father Leslie Chapman, 51, told a news conference: "All is forgiven, just come home.
"Jessica is bright and intelligent. She knows to use the phone and it is a complete mystery why she has not phoned. It is out of character."
Mother Sharon, 43, a learning support assistant at the girls' school, said Jessica wasn't streetwise, but she was not stupid. "Come home," she sobbed. Holly's dad Kevin Wells, 38, said: "They were fine when they were playing here. We think they must have gone out for sweets."
He didn't think Holly, a majorette who plays the cornet, would be too frightened to come home. Mr Wells said: "They are very bright girls and I would say to them, 'Don't think for a moment you are going to be told off'." He added: "We are really worried something untoward has happened."
SOBBING: Nicola, 35, the mother of Holly
Mr Wells said later on radio: "If you can hear this Holly, just call home. You are not in trouble, we just want you home."
He described his daughter as a "fantastic girl", adding: "She is bright, bubbly, vivacious, very intelligent." Tomboy Jessica, who plays football and has a dog Toby and cat Fluffy, had just returned home from a holiday in Minorca.
On Sunday she went to Holly's house, just round the corner, to give her a present from abroad.
The classmates were last spotted a few hundred metres away at 6.30pm, walking towards Soham town centre in their red Man Utd shirts with "David Beckham" and his team number 7 on the back.
Two hours later, the barbecue at Holly's broke up.
AGONY: Sharon and Leslie Chapman
Her mother Nicola, a 35-year-old secretary, said: "Our friends went to leave at about 8.30pm and we mentioned how quiet the girls had been. When we went to check on them, they had gone." Last night about 500 residents gathered in Soham to join police search teams. A helicopter and dogs were brought in.
One volunteer, Andrew Dennis, 38, said: "I am friends with Holly's parents and when I found out she had gone missing, I felt sick.
"I have my nine-year-old son Daniel with me and my inclination is just to hold him very, very close." On Sunday the girls had played on a computer at Holly's four-bedroom detached home and visited a sports centre before having tea at 5.20pm.
They went upstairs to play, before going missing about an hour later.
The two sets of parents launched their own hunt before calling police.
Mr Wells said: "We searched the length and breadth of the village from Wickham to Soham, where they tracked her mobile signal. Then it went dead." Yesterday he completed 16 hours of seeking his daughter and was out again last night.
Police checked the sex offenders' register for a possible abduction suspect.
They also examined Holly's computer to see if the girls had been using the internet and may have gone to meet someone they had encountered on the web. Holly, who has a brother, 12, is very slim with a fair complexion and straight blonde shoulder-length hair.
Jessica, with two older sisters, is slim, tanned, with shoulder-length brown hair. Both were wearing dark trousers and Nike trainers with their Man Utd shirts.
I hope they are alright.
Parents in torment over vanished Man Utd children
By Lorraine Fisher
FIVE hundred volunteers last night joined the desperate search for two missing 10-year-old girls in David Beckham replica shirts.
Police and the parents of best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman urged them: "Please phone home."
Detectives said they were "extremely concerned" by the disappearance of the pair on Sunday night after a barbecue at Holly's home.
HAPPY: Missing Holy Wells
The girls were said to be happy, intelligent children who have never gone missing before. It is thought they had no money and no change of clothes.
Detectives had hoped to trace them via Jessica's mobile phone.
But there was no reply and it went dead at 1.30am yesterday. Officers arranged for it to be "topped up" in case credit had run out.
The girls' distraught parents, from the Cambridgeshire market town of Soham, made an emotional appeal to them and assured them they would not be in trouble.
INTELLIGENT: Missing Jessica Chapman
Jessica's father Leslie Chapman, 51, told a news conference: "All is forgiven, just come home.
"Jessica is bright and intelligent. She knows to use the phone and it is a complete mystery why she has not phoned. It is out of character."
Mother Sharon, 43, a learning support assistant at the girls' school, said Jessica wasn't streetwise, but she was not stupid. "Come home," she sobbed. Holly's dad Kevin Wells, 38, said: "They were fine when they were playing here. We think they must have gone out for sweets."
He didn't think Holly, a majorette who plays the cornet, would be too frightened to come home. Mr Wells said: "They are very bright girls and I would say to them, 'Don't think for a moment you are going to be told off'." He added: "We are really worried something untoward has happened."
SOBBING: Nicola, 35, the mother of Holly
Mr Wells said later on radio: "If you can hear this Holly, just call home. You are not in trouble, we just want you home."
He described his daughter as a "fantastic girl", adding: "She is bright, bubbly, vivacious, very intelligent." Tomboy Jessica, who plays football and has a dog Toby and cat Fluffy, had just returned home from a holiday in Minorca.
On Sunday she went to Holly's house, just round the corner, to give her a present from abroad.
The classmates were last spotted a few hundred metres away at 6.30pm, walking towards Soham town centre in their red Man Utd shirts with "David Beckham" and his team number 7 on the back.
Two hours later, the barbecue at Holly's broke up.
AGONY: Sharon and Leslie Chapman
Her mother Nicola, a 35-year-old secretary, said: "Our friends went to leave at about 8.30pm and we mentioned how quiet the girls had been. When we went to check on them, they had gone." Last night about 500 residents gathered in Soham to join police search teams. A helicopter and dogs were brought in.
One volunteer, Andrew Dennis, 38, said: "I am friends with Holly's parents and when I found out she had gone missing, I felt sick.
"I have my nine-year-old son Daniel with me and my inclination is just to hold him very, very close." On Sunday the girls had played on a computer at Holly's four-bedroom detached home and visited a sports centre before having tea at 5.20pm.
They went upstairs to play, before going missing about an hour later.
The two sets of parents launched their own hunt before calling police.
Mr Wells said: "We searched the length and breadth of the village from Wickham to Soham, where they tracked her mobile signal. Then it went dead." Yesterday he completed 16 hours of seeking his daughter and was out again last night.
Police checked the sex offenders' register for a possible abduction suspect.
They also examined Holly's computer to see if the girls had been using the internet and may have gone to meet someone they had encountered on the web. Holly, who has a brother, 12, is very slim with a fair complexion and straight blonde shoulder-length hair.
Jessica, with two older sisters, is slim, tanned, with shoulder-length brown hair. Both were wearing dark trousers and Nike trainers with their Man Utd shirts.
I hope they are alright.