Nightmare wait for parents

The parents of missing schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were tonight facing an anguishing wait as police began the grim task of searching two small patches of disturbed earth.

Police officers at Warren Hill, near Newmarket, Suffolk, said preliminary searches of the woodland area had proved inconclusive and that forensic officers planned to work through the night.

A jogger, who heard screaming in the area on the night the girls went missing, reported the discovery of disturbed earth less than 10 miles from where the 10-year-olds disappeared.

Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said: “We acknowledge this is a very harrowing time for the families and we will be proceeding as quickly as we can to ascertain the situation.

“There has to be a very scientific approach. The families are being kept fully up to date with what is going on.”