Milly is probably dead, say police

The parents of the missing schoolgirl Amanda Dowler have made an emotional appeal for her return just days before her birthday.

Bob and Sally Dowler spoke of their suffering since their daughter went missing three months ago, and how they will cope on Amanda's 14th birthday on Tuesday.

Police confirmed yesterday that they have told her parents Bob and Sally Dowler they believe that she is dead.

Amanda, known as Milly, vanished on 21 March while walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

"Her birthday is going to be so hard. No one really knows what to do, for example, they're asking us if they should send cards," said Mr Dowler.

Father's Day had been a "bad day". "I hadn't even thought about it being Father's Day," he said, "and then my daughter Gemma came downstairs and gave me a card. It took me completely unawares. I just went through all the thoughts and emotions you can imagine. There's normally two cards. It was a bad day."

A nationwide hunt has failed to find any trace of Milly despite a £100,000 reward, a TV reconstruction and pleas from celebrities.

Milly's parents have had several false alarms. A body found in the Thames turned out to be that of an elderly woman; a man arrested in Chertsey, Surrey, in connection with the teenager's disappearance was released without charge and a prisoner at Belmarsh has also been questioned and released.

Mr Dowler said weekends were particularly difficult. "Any family occasions are really hard. Even other people's birthdays. We go to send them a card, and then it hits us – who do we sign it from? Now we just put 'the Dowlers'. The Jubilee weekend was hellishly long."

He added: "It's impossible to describe the pain we are going through.

"We need to know where our daughter is and what has happened to her."