Mother admits she has lost hope of finding Danielle alive

The mother of missing schoolgirl Danielle Jones has admitted that she has lost almost all hope of finding her daughter alive.

Not a word has been heard from the 15-year-old since she disappeared on her way to school more than six weeks ago. Today her father Tony, 41, will retrace her last known steps with police to try once again to shed some light on the case.

"We have to have that little bit of hope but I don't really think she's alive any more," Linda Jones said yesterday.

Mrs Jones, 41, said it had become "harder and harder to deal with" her daughter's disappearance as the weeks passed, each morning having to face another day of distress.

Detectives believe Danielle was abducted as she walked to the bus stop near her home in East Tilbury, Essex, on her way to school on 18 June.

Two separate witnesses described a girl fitting her description arguing with a man and getting into a blue van. Her mother said: "The amount of time that's gone on, she can't have disappeared off the face of the earth, if she was able to get in touch she would have done without a doubt. Which is what makes me feel she isn't able to do that. We need an answer to it, we can't go on indefinitely in this limbo stage. That's hard to deal with.

"I don't want to hear the worst but we need an end to it."

Mrs Jones said the atmosphere at home with Danielle's father and brothers Mitchell, who turned 11 on Wednesday, and Ryan, 13, was "very tense".

She said: "Somebody must know something ... if you know anyone who is acting suspiciously, I can't beg you enough to come forward. We miss her so much, I need to know what's happened."