The parents of missing schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells today publicly backed the police investigation.

A midnight deadline has passed with no word from an abductor who may have taken Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Detective Superintendent David Beck, the officer leading the hunt for the Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, is to set up a telephone hotline for the abductor to call him in person "one-to-one" with a deadline of midnight on Thursday.

THE parents of missing schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were last night facing an anguished wait as police began the grim task of searching two small patches of disturbed earth.

The police chief leading the hunt for missing 10 year olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman was tonight making a direct television appeal to the girls’ abductor to let them go free.

Two men were being held by British police today in connection with the disappearance of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

SIGNIFICANT new leads have emerged after detectives searching for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman studied a computer the girls used before they disappeared, police said yesterday.