A moment in time: Holly and Jessica
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Smiling in their Manchester United shirts, a picture of the two missing Cambridgeshire girls was taken just 90 minutes before they disappeared.
Three days later – with no word from Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells and two possible sightings – detectives voiced their suspicion that the girls have been abducted.
The photograph was released by police hoping to find anyone who may have seen the two 10-year-olds since their disappearance early on Sunday evening. It was taken by Holly's mother, Nicola, in the front room of their home in Red House Gardens, in the quiet market town of Soham during a family barbecue.
Holly changed into her football shirt, with the name Beckham and number seven on the back, after her best friend arrived. Jessica put on Holly's brother's identical shirt and black shorts.
Last night, Cambridgeshire police were examining footage of four adults and two girls caught on CCTV camera in the centre of Soham on the day of the girls' disappearance. A police spokesman said the footage was being shown to the families to see whether Holly and Jessica were on the film. The spokesman stressed that the people in the tapes were not being treated as suspects.
Earlier yesterday, 250 police officers searched fenland, waterways and farm buildings. Officers with experience in child abductions, including two of the detectives involved in the Sarah Payne murder inquiry, were also providing their expertise.
The officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Superintendent David Hankins, admitted: "We are having to consider the possibility of abduction."
A white van was seized yesterday and examined, although police later dismissed the incident as a routine search.