Girls lay flowers near sight of bodies find

Three young girls tonight knelt down to lay flowers near the spot where the bodies feared to be those of missing Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were found.

The youngsters were some of the first people to place flowers at the roadside near the scene of the awful discovery.

Within hours of the bodies being found by walkers the remote spot near Lakenheath, Suffolk, was transformed from a beauty spot and nature reserve into a possible crime scene, swarming with police.

Scenes of crime officers poured down a track dressed in their distinctive white plastic suits, preparing for a painstaking and lengthy search.

The gruesome find of two as yet unidentified bodies was made at about 1pm by two local men and a woman who were walking in the area.

The bodies lie at the edge of a track, surrounded by open Suffolk countryside, close to densely wooded conifer plantations and the United States Air Force base at Lakenheath.

Forests hem in the area, which is covered with scrub and copses.

Tonight it was at the centre of a police investigation which has gripped the nation for almost two weeks.

Jennifer and Kelly Knight and their friend Joanna Hotchkiss, 12, had travelled to the spot to lay flowers at the roadside where police blockades had sealed off the area.

Kelly and Jennifer’s mother Michelle Thomson, 27, said they had begged to be allowed to come after following the case since the girls disappeared.

The family, who are on a Suffolk caravanning holiday from their home in Oldham, Greater Manchester said their trip had been in the shadow of the hunt for the missing 10-year-olds.

Ms Thomson said: "Kelly was particularly upset about what had happened because she will be 10 herself soon and the closeness in age really brings it home.

"She said, ‘Mummy is it alright if I put some flowers down?’ So we came here so they could lay some wildflowers."