Dowler police trace owners of sports cars

Detectives in the Amanda Dowler murder inquiry were trying to trace hundreds of motorists yesterday after identifying a sports car spotted close to where the 13-year-old was last seen alive.

Experts called in by Surrey Police to analyse closed-circuit television pictures say that a dark-coloured vehicle driven slowly down a road in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March was a Mazda MX6. Officers have asked for the driver of the car to come forward and they are trying to trace MX6 owners in London, Surrey, and Hampshire.

Surrey Police has been involved in a massive hunt for Amanda, also known as Milly, since whe disappeared 50 yards from Walton-on-Thames railway station on her way back from school. Her body was found 25 miles away in remote woodland in Yateley Heath Forest, Hampshire, on 18 September.

The CCTV footage from the station was obscured by the glare of the sun but, with the help of FBI agents, Surrey Police has managed to enhance the images.

In the images, a dark-coloured saloon car can be seen driving along Station Avenue. The driver appears to pull over to talk to a pedestrian, who could have been Amanda, for nearly a minute. When earlier appeals for the motorist to contact police failed, detectives contacted Kalagate Imagery Bureau, in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, which specialises in examining CCTV footage for the courts.

By superimposing pictures of cars over the images of the blurred vehicle and taking careful measurements, detectives concluded the car was a Mazda MX6. About 5,000 of these have been sold in the UK.

A police spokeswoman stressed that the driver of the car was not necessarily a suspect, but appealed for him or her to contact detectives.

Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Denholm, who is leading the inquiry, said: "They may have information that is vital to the investigation. I would appeal for anyone who is the owner of such a car and was in the Walton area around 4pm on Thursday, 21 March, to consider whether it may have been them, and to contact us."

Police have been trying to trace two men who were spotted by a witness with a schoolgirl in the Hampshire woods about an hour after she disappeared. They are also investigating sightings by the same witness of three cars and a white van.

The forensic search of the area where Amanda's body was found is complete.