From routine inquiry to murder hunt

What is now one of Britain's most notorious murder cases started off as a routine missing persons inquiry. Jessica and Holly's parents first contacted Cambridgeshire police on Sunday 4 August.

In charge of Operation Fincham was Det Supt David Beck. Keith Hoddy, the force's assistant chief constable is standing in for Tom Lloyd, head of Cambridgeshire police, who had gone on holiday two days before the girls disappeared.

At this stage, Det Supt David Beck had no reason to believe the girls had been abducted, but did mobilise officers to take part in a search of the town along with the residents. They appealed for locals to search outbuildings, based on the theory the girls may fear their parents were angry, and were hiding.

Resumed at dawn on 5 August, the search proved fruitless. The police turned their attentions to the mobile phone used by Jessica. The signal showed that the phone was in the broad area of northern Cambridgeshire, which included Soham.

However, police efforts to track the proper location of the phone failed because the satellite position given was not specific enough to help them.

More than 50 officers were brought in to start trawling through the last sightings of the girls and deal with information coming into the incident room. During the early days of the inquiry, checks were also made on the 266 people on the sex offenders register in Cambridge, and CCTV footage was trawled through to piece together Holly and Jessica's last-known movements.

They also topped up the credit on the mobile phone in the hope the girls would use it to contact the officers.

By the middle of the first week, police were still treating the case as an abduction, and started to look to other forces for help.

Police officers set about investigating email messages sent by the girls, text messages and tracing any internet sites they may have accessed.

Two Sussex detectives involved in the Sarah Payne murder inquiry were brought in – DCI Martyn Underhill and Det Supt Alan Ladley. Neighbouring forces were also contacted for any expertise they could bring. A white van seen cruising the area was seized but was then eliminated from the inquiry.

Meanwhile, officers in the incident room had come across CCTV footage which showed four people walking past Holly and Jessica as they stood by cars in a car park. An official appeal was made for these four people to come forward.

An expert in child abduction was brought in. DI Chuck Burton runs the Catchem system, which has recorded statistics of more than 40 years of child offences.

Police officer David Beck made a direct appeal to anyone who may have kidnapped the girls to give themselves up.

Six days after the girls went missing, DCI Andy Hebb revealed that he believed that girls were still alive but could be anywhere in UK or abroad.

The next day, two girls were brought in by police to stage a reconstruction of Holly and Jessica's last movements.

On 13 August police investigated reports from a taxi driver of a man driving erratically from Soham with two children in the car on the night the girls disappeared. They then sealed off an area of Newmarket after a jogger found an area of disturbed earth. Both leads were eventually discounted.

At the end of the second week of the inquiry, specialist detectives from the Met were called in to review the handling of the hunt for the missing girls. Acting deputy chief constable Keith Hoddy took over personal control of the inquiry from Det Supt David Beck. Police also appealed for the potential abductor of Holly and Jessica to ring a police hotline.

Yesterday, Maxine Carr and Ian Huntley were brought in for interviewing by police and later arrested on suspicion of murder.