She's got to be alive, says grandmother

The grandmother of Holly Wells say she has "got to be alive".

Agnes Wells says the longer the search goes on the worse it is getting for the family of Holly and Jessica Chapman.

Holly's grandmother, Agnes, summed up their torment as they held on to the hope that the schoolgirls are alive despite the midnight deadline passing without a word from a possible abductor.

Mrs Wells said she was not surprised that a possible abductor had not contacted the police. "A bloke like that doesn't do that, do they?

But she added: "She's got to be alive."

Detectives leading the hunt for the two ten-year-olds, who went missing 12 days ago, set up a special telephone line in a bid to open up a one-to-one dialogue with whoever could be behind their disappearance.

"The longer this goes on the worse it's getting," Mrs Wells said today.

"It's just horrific. I've just been working and I've been crying the whole time.

"It's just horrible. But there's got to be hope. We haven't heard that they are dead so there has to be hope."

Mrs Wells, 61, added: "We are all bearing up and pulling together. We have got a lot of support at the house and we will just have to wait and hear."