Police in Milly inquiry alerted after body is found

Detectives hunting for the missing teenager Amanda Dowler were alerted yesterday after a skull was found in woodland in Hampshire.

Investigators involved in the six-month search for the girl, who they believe has been abducted, plan to use an orthodontist to compare the remains with the missing girl's dental records.

Amanda, also known as Milly, was aged 13 when she disappeared on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

The discovery coincides with the six-month anniversary of her disappearance and with two interviews given by her parents expressing fears she may not be alive.

The remains were found in Yateley Heath Forest, near Fleet, at 1.40pm. It is not yet known if the remains were those of a boy or a girl.

Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Denholm, who is leading the investigation into Amanda's disappearance, was informed of the find and officers from his squad were sent to help Hampshire police search the area. It could be the first breakthrough for police in an inquiry in which officers have struggled to find any significant clues, witnesses, a crime scene or possible suspects. A senior officer on the Dowler team said: "We do not know if it [the skull] is her ... or even if it is a murder."

Last night, Amanda's mother said she believed her daughter had been murdered. Speaking on ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald, Sally and Bob Dowler spoke of the torment they felt after the deaths of the Soham schoolgirls in Cambridgeshire. They added that they feared their daughter had suffered the same fate as Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

"I think that she has been abducted and murdered and I've been through every possible scenario and played them all through time and time again but that's the only one I seem to end up at each time.

"The not knowing is just awful because ... there is still that element of doubt. Has someone taken her, but is she still alive?" said Mrs Dowler.

Mrs Dowler, 43, told the programme that cases of child abductions in the news had been very deeply distressing to her family.

"I think every time something like that happens, or the news of Holly and Jessica, it's just terrible watching that and my heart goes out to anyone who has ever been in a situation like that, it really does."

In another interview, she said she could not bring herself to think about how Amanda may have died.

"What's happened in between is a gap," she said. "I can't bring myself to think about that bit. Until we find out for sure what's happened, it's too awful to contemplate."

Mr Dowler, 50, also expressed fears for his daughter. "It is so close to home that she disappeared ... every time we drive past you look ... and you glance ... and you think, 'Well, what happened?'" he said.

He added that a home video of his daughter ironing was now a dearly prized and poignant memory of her. "The reason I filmed her was because it was the first time she had done any ironing," he said. "It is a very treasured piece of video for us, very treasured indeed."

He said that in the film, she was pressing her clothes to prepare for a Pop Idol concert in London the following night.

She went to the concert on 19 March, and told her sister Gemma during a bedtime chat the following night that she'd "danced her little heart out". The next day Milly disappeared. She was last seen at 4.08pm, and had been sharing a bowl of chips in a station cafe with some friends moments before she vanished.

Mr and Mrs Dowler and Amanda's 16-year-old sister, Gemma, have been told by detectives that she is almost certainly dead. In Tonight with Trevor McDonald, the couple make a plea for information about anyone who might have murdered Amanda, anyone she may have confided in or anybody who saw something suspicious.