THE HUNT FOR JESSICA AND HOLLY: TEARS FOR LAST WALK

TWO small, slender figures walked hand in hand...for a moment, it seemed as if the lost girls of Soham had come home.

But in truth, the agony goes on.

These were schoolgirl actresses yesterday, bravely retracing the last known steps of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Six days after the 10-year-old friends went missing, police staged the reconstruction of their walk, through the streets of their home town.

Their hope was that it might jog memories - perhaps even shake the conscience of the abductor who, they believe, is still keeping the terrified children prisoner.

The town watched in silence.

Crowds of local people stood along the route as the two girls hurried by, just as they would have done in real life.

Holly and Jessica were always together, always in a hurry.

Some onlookers were in tears - overcome at the sight of the children, one blonde and one dark-haired, both in their red Manchester United shirts.

All week, the same image had haunted them, from thousands of posters around the town. Now, eerily, it was brought back to life.

The centre of Soham was at a standstill, parents holding their children close, teenagers looking anxious - once, seeing Holly and Jessica go past, would have been routine.

"This is so sad, it's so distressing to watch," said builder's wife Julie Mann, whose 10-year-old son Adam is a classmate of the missing girls.

"They are so like the girls...if only it could really be them. We've known them all of their lives, and all we can do now is pray for them. How is this going to end? We dread to think."

Police asked that the actresses who took on the roles should be identified only by their first names.

Daniella, nine, who played Holly, and 10-year-old Megan, who was Jessica, were recruited from a Cambridge acting agency. Then detectives went to painstaking lengths to recreate the girls' appearance.

The two were sent to a hairdressers, where Daniella's wavy blonde hair was straightened, like Holly's. Megan's dark hair was cut into a fringe and she had coloured braiding woven into one side - just as Jessica had done, during her recent holiday in Menorca.

Manchester United hurriedly supplied their shirts, with Beckham's name on the back. Their jogging pants came from Tammy Girl, where Holly and Jessica shopped together. The necklace Megan wore was a perfect replica of Jessica's.

The 15-minute walk began from the drive of Holly's house where the friends had set off the evening they vanished.

Jessica's mother, Sharon, accompanied by Nicola, Holly's mum walked their final route ahead of the formal reconstruction.

Later in the afternoon Holly's father Kevin, also accompanied by a family liaison officer also made the harrowing journey.

Police hoped that the parents' knowledge of their children's habits would help in recreating the most accurate route which they were likely to have taken.

A police source said: "They showed remarkable composure and courage in taking what must have been an extremely harrowing walk through the town. They knew it would be difficult but they faced up to the task in a hope that it could bring back their children to the safety of their homes." Afterwards, police praised the young actresses for their performance. The tiny figures seemed to falter only once - when they turned into the town's main square, and were confronted with rows of posters of Holly and Jessica.

"It was scary, I was glad when it was nearly over," Daniella said later. And Megan added: "I feel that I've done something to help, I hope they find them soon."

"We believe that Holly and Jessica are alive, though extremely, extremely distressed after so long away from their families," said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb.

"We repeat our appeal to the abductor or abductors - think what you are doing, let these children home.

Holly's grandmother, Agnes, 61, said she believed that the Internet may have played a part in her granddaughter's disappearance. She said: "I think there should be greater controls over the use of the Internet. Anyone can get access to chat rooms, paedophiles, anyone.

"Holly is a beautiful, bubbly girl. She is my only grandchild. We all just want her back home."

On a corner at the crossroads in the middle of town, a woman is standing alone and weeping.

"I've never known Holly and Jessica, never even come here into Soham that often," says Karyn Naylor, 29, wiping tears away.

"But I have two daughters of my own, and I can't stop myself thinking 'what if?'" The dread is left unspoken.

If this could happen here, of all places, to little ones such as Holly and Jessica - loved, protected, warned against the world's dangers by devoted families - then it can happen anywhere, to anyone's children.

dennis.ellam@sundaymirror.co.uk

-NET PERVERT NAILED: Pages 4&5

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