UK News 08-08-2002 White Van Seized In Hunt For Missing Girls who: Ten-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells what: Have probably been abducted, say police where: SOHAM when: Yesterday snippet: "Police investigating the disappearance of 10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman today seized a white van," reports last night`s Cambridge Evening News. Detective Superintendent David Hankins, leading the hunt, said he now feared that the girls had been abducted and that the van had been seen "cruising the area" on Sunday night when the Soham schoolgirls went missing. "From the outset we thought this might be a prank," Det Sup Hankins continued, "then we thought there might have been an accident, but now we sadly have to consider the possibility of an abduction." "We have known it was an abduction case from day one," said Holly`s father Kevin yesterday, quoted in The Mirror. "We understand the police have to follow other lines of inquiry but in our heart of hearts we knew." The BBC says that police are now studying closed-circuit television footage to identify key witnesses. The Sun and the News of the World newspapers have offered a £150,000 reward for information about whereabouts of the two friends. Express Newspapers has offered a £1million. [... more]

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