22/02/2008

Search Continues For Missing Schoolgirl

A massive police search restarted this morning for nine-year-old Shannon Matthews who disappeared after a school swimming trip in West Yorkshire on Tuesday afternoon.

A police operation involving 250 officers and desperate day-and-night searches by friends and relatives have failed to find her, although detectives are checking out a number of unconfirmed sightings of the schoolgirl.

A man said he saw Shannon just a few hundred yards from her home in Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, on Wednesday morning.

Superintendent Andy Brennan said: "It was an adult who was convinced it was Shannon."

He said the sighting was one of a number his team of 60 detectives were investigating.

Brennan said Shannon was vulnerable and certainly not "streetwise".

(CD)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

16 June 2003
Shannon region boosted by 14m euro investment
Irish Deputy Prime Minister, and trade minister, Mary Harney has announced an investment of 14 million euro in 11 new Irish-owned high-technology start-up businesses in the Shannon Region.
05 March 2008
999 Call Released In Search For Shannon
Police searching for missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews have released a recording of the 999 call made by her mother reporting that she had failed to come home. Karen Matthews made the call when her nine-year-old daughter failed to return home following a school swimming trip on February 19.
20 October 2008
Father Questioned Over Woodland Body Find
Detectives investigating the murder of a 19-year-old woman, whose skeletal remains were discovered in woodland, have been granted more time to question her father. Sussex Police who arrested the 45-year-old on Saturday on suspicion of murder, have been granted a further 36 hours to question him on Sunday.
12 March 2008
Mother Claims Shannon 'Was Abducted'
The mother of missing West Yorkshire schoolgirl Shannon Matthews has said that she fears that her daughter was abducted by someone she knows. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme, Karen Matthews said that she believed Shannon was abducted after she disappeared last month.
11 March 2008
Fresh Appeal Over Missing Shannon
A fresh appeal for information has been made by the family of missing West Yorkshire schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, three weeks after her disappearance. The nine-year-old disappeared after failing to return to her home in Dewsbury Moor following a school swimming trip on February 19.