Police 'certain' that bodies are those of missing girls

The long-feared truth was finally confirmed at 7pm last night. Police said they were "as certain as possible" that the remains found on a rural track were those of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, Keith Hoddy, broke the news. "It is with great sadness that I have to tell you the following. It may be some days yet before we are able to positively identify the two bodies found at Common Drove, yesterday lunchtime. However, we are as certain as we possibly can be tonight that they are those of Holly and Jessica. Holly and Jessica's families have been told this terrible news.

Late yesterday evening – after an initial examination by the Home Office pathologist Dr Nat Cary – the girls were due to be moved from the small woodland area, close to the perimeter of Lakenheath airbase, to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

Last night both sets of parents were being comforted by family liaison officers during what Mr Hoddy described as "the bleakest of moments''.

Mr Hoddy gathered journalists for what he said he hoped would be the last time the media would be assembled in Soham town centre.

Reading a statement from Holly's parents, Nicola and Kevin Wells, he said: "Although still numb after losing our gorgeous daughter Holly, please accept our heartfelt thanks for everyone's help and support throughout this traumatic fortnight.

"The people of Soham have had their daily lives turned upside down by the presence of the media during the last fortnight.

"You have all played a very important part in the hunt for Jessica and Holly and for that I thank you.

"But perhaps now I may invite you to consider that it may now be an appropriate time for all media representatives to withdraw from this community to allow it to come to terms with its terrible loss. Thank you."

Mr Hoddy continued: "We, like the families, refused to give up hope that the girls would be found alive and well. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Holly's parents and brother and Jessica's parents and sisters at this ghastly time. An enormous effort involving hundreds of police officers, supported by civilians and scores of experts, worked tirelessly to trace the girls, and the sense of sorrow now is felt acutely," he said.

With time now running out for questioning, Cambridgeshire police were given 36 more hours to interview the caretaker of Soham Village College, Ian Huntley, 28, and his fianceé, Maxine Carr, 25.

Meanwhile officers from Operation Fincham continued to examine the spot where two men walking with a woman at lunchtime on Saturday discovered the girls off a path behind Wangford Church near Mildenhall, Suffolk.

Search teams were still combing the couple's home, on site at the secondary school, as well as the surrounding Soham Village College where a find of "major interest'' led to the couple's arrest on Saturday morning. Yesterday an extension, granted at a closed magistrates' court session, was the second sought by detectives.

A search of the next door St Andrew's school – where Miss Carr had been a temporary teaching assistant to the two girls – as well as Mr Huntley's father's home in Littleport, Ely, also continued. Meanwhile, officers cordoned off a car valet site at a nearby garage in anticipation of having to conduct tests.

For two weeks the Cambridgeshire market town has been on tenter hooks but yesterday determined hopefulness crumpled even before confirmation that the residents' worst fears had been realised.

More than 600 people from the town appeared distraught and disbelieving as they packed St Andrew's Parish Church for a service. Throughout the day tearful residents laid flowers, bearing poignant messages, outside. "We are still in shock. That might well turn to anger but at the moment we feel disbelief," the vicar, the Rev Tim Alban Jones, said.