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SEARCH FOR SHANNON: Police fear kidnap
DETECTIVES have widened their search for missing Shannon Matthews fearing she has "fallen into the wrong hands".
The officer in charge, Det Supt Andy Brennan, said that while he believed the key to finding the nine-year-old lay in the Dewsbury Moor area it was "only right" that his team had been in touch with other police forces in their continuing bid to find the youngster alive.
Det Supt Brennan said the possibility that the nine-year-old had been snatched was now one theory being considered.
And he said a link with an attempted abduction of a 12-year-old girl in Wakefield on the same day Shannon disappeared had not been ruled out, adding that inquiry "was of interest to us".
The detective spoke at a press conference yesterday afternoon as police launched a massive information appeal across the Dewsbury Moor area close to Shannon's home in Moorside Road.
His appeal came exactly a week after Shannon's disappearance when she failed to return from an after-school swimming lesson.
A large electronic TV screen attached to a van was parked outside the local crematorium yesterday to play a video to passing motorists and pedestrians appealing for information and describing what she was last seen wearing.
Scores of uniformed officers set up road blocks to stop motorists.
Det Sup Brennan said the investigation had changed in tone and was now similar to a murder-style inquiry.
He said: "What concerns me greatly is that Shannon, a vulnerable nine-year-old girl, may have fallen into the wrong hands." But the detective stressed that his officers were treating Shannon as still missing and had not given up hope of finding her alive.
Police also issued two new pictures of Shannon, one of her at a birthday party and another of the youngster with a pet dog.
A third photo was also issued of the blue coach Shannon was brought back to school in after she had been swimming and shortly before she disappeared just after 3pm on Tuesday, February 19.
Police have also issued an e-fit of a man they want to speak to in connection with the attempted abduction of the schoolgirl who refused to get into car and was then chased by the male driver at around 9am on the same Tuesday, along Oxford Street, Belle Vue, in Wakefield.
Anyone with information about Shannon's disappearance should call 01274 373737, text 07786 200806 or ring Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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