Parents cling to glimmer of hope after three days of fear on the fens

The residents of Soham, deep in the Cambridgeshire fens, were still fearing the worst yesterday, despite a glimmer of hope in a story that seems all too familiar.

Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, two seemingly sensible 10-year-olds, were missing, two days after they left a house in the small country town, apparently to buy sweets.

As the mystery of what happened to them remained impenetrable to detectives, a new twist to the missing persons inquiry emerged. A local woman had seen the two girls the morning after they vanished. According to the vital new witness, they looked as if they were off on an adventure, laughing and larking as they went down the road.

Looking happy, well-groomed and dressed in Manchester United shirts, the girls had been seen on the A10 between Ely and Cambridge on Monday morning, eight miles from Soham. It was the most welcome news the Wellses and Chapmans had heard since their daughters disappeared on Sunday.

Inevitably, concerns that the girls – who had left a family barbecue – had been abducted or had fallen into water mounted after they spent their second night away from home.

Everyone who knows them has stressed how "out of character" it was for them to have disappeared without warning. Aided by Jessica's and Holly's parents, and hundreds of volunteers, the police spent a fruitless night searching in torrential rain through fields of mud, hedgerows, ditches and farm outbuildings.

Yesterday, Holly's parents Kevin, 38, and Nicola, 35, said the sighting of their daughter and her school pal, had lifted their spirits.

At 6.45am on Monday, Tina-Marie Easey, 39, from Little Thetford, a village north of Soham on the A10, made the sighting that has given such hope. Twisting open her blinds in the living room she looked out on to the verge about 10ft away and to her surprise saw two girls walking by. "The fair-haired one was pushing the dark-haired one; they were larking about and laughing. They were both wearing Manchester United tops – I recognised them because I've got two supporters in the family," Mrs Easey said.

"I thought it was early for kids to be out but there is a camp site near by and you see children around here quite often," she said. "It wasn't until I heard on the news that they were missing that I realised who they might be – if I'd known I would have made a grab for them."

Mrs Easey spotted the girls walking in the direction of Cambridge. If it was Jessica and Holly – and the police say that they are confident it was – then the girls must have walked eight miles along the roads from Soham. There are shortcuts across the fields but their parents say their daughters were not familiar with them.

The journey from their home town, where the two families are friends, takes them through the Cambridgeshire fens alongside fields of corn and stubble. They would have turned left at the town of Ely, the towering cathedral of which dominates the flat landscape.

Slicing through the fens are the deep ducts and sluices that drain the sodden terrain. Divers are expected to start searching the murky waters later today, while officers in inflatable boats spent yesterday scouring the water banks for clues.

The reported sighting is so far the only one out of 1,500 calls to Cambridgeshire police that is considered reliable. In a strange twist, the possibility arose of a second possible sighting. Mrs Easey's neighbour, Caroline Perry, 76, said she had seen two small girls wearing red tops walking along the road at about 3pm on Monday in the opposite direction. This time they were going towards Ely. Mrs Perry said: "They seemed very cheerful – really pleased with themselves. They were very happy, smiling and very clean."

Her description, however, did not completely match that given by the girls' parents. Mrs Perry said that the children were wearing white trousers but the families said they had left their homes wearing black ones.

On hearing of the first sighting, Mrs Wells said at a press conference yesterday: "It has given us hope that it was them. We just want them back."

The police, too, are encouraged and say that it suggests that there was no "foul play". Instead they may be hiding out in one of the many farm buildings, haystacks or caravan sites dotted around the area. But, as the hours go by and there is still no sign of the children, the likelihood of an abduction or an accident is growing stronger.

Police disclosed yesterday that detectives who led the hunt for the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne will help in the search for the girls.

Detective Superintendent David Hankins said two officers would assist the Cambridgeshire team tomorrow but stressed that the girls' disappearance was being treated as a missing persons inquiry.

The two Sussex officers, Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley and Detective Chief Inspector Martyn Underhill, were involved from the beginning of the search for Sarah, eight, who vanished from a field near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, in July 2000. Det Supt Ladley said he was reminded of the tragedy of Sarah's murder every time he heard of children disappearing. "In a case like this we like to share any assistance we can, just as we did with Milly Dowler," he said.

Det Supt Hankins, who is leading the Cambridgeshire inquiry and is the father of a 10-year-old girl, said: "You don't get this kind of inquiry very often, so you have to draw on the expertise of other forces." Neighbouring police forces have been helping in the search for Holly and Jessica.

David Beckham, the England and Manchester United football star, was also drafted in yesterday to appeal to the girls to "go home". Their Manchester United shirts both had Beckham's name and number 7 on the back.

Det Supt Hankins said police involved in the search were "greatly appreciative" of the footballer's gesture. "We appreciate him giving his time greatly, as do the parents of Holly and Jessica, I have no doubt," he said.

Meanwhile, in Soham and the surrounding area, the search is continuing. Beryl Badcock, who lives in the town and knows the Wells family, said: "Everyone feels so helpless. I can't imagine what the parents are going through. We all feel for them. I just hope the whole thing is a prank by the girls."

Police family support officers are trying to comfort the parents of the girls. But for Sharon Chapman, 43, and her husband Leslie, 51, and for Nicola and Kevin Wells, the agony goes on as they wait for news of their daughters.