34 days on, investigation has no leads

Patrick Sawer12 April 2012

The last her friends saw of her was as she turned to wave goodbye before apparently heading home. That was 34 days ago and no one has seen Milly Dowler. She has quite simply vanished.

Despite the efforts of over 100 police officers, more than 4,000 calls from members of the public, days of news coverage, a televised reconstruction and even an appeal by the My Fair Lady star Jonathan Pryce, few leads have emerged. Police are, in their own words, "baffled".

So just what did happen to Milly Dowler? Her last known journey, on Thursday, 21 March, took her from Heathside School in Weybridge, where she was described by the head Glyn Willoughby as "bright and extremely popular," by train to Walton station. Here she broke her journey home to share a 90p plate of chips in the station's Travellers Caf?, with her friend Danielle Sykes and another classmate. Milly's mobile phone had run out of credit, so she borrowed a friend's to phone her father and tell him she'd be a bit later than normal.

Then she set off for the mile-long walk home along Station Avenue and Rydens Road to Walton Park, where Robert Dowler was waiting. She never arrived and two hours later her frightened family alerted the police.

It was feared that either Milly had run away from home or, worse, had been abducted. A full missing person's inquiry was launched. Over the next two weeks dozens of officers backed by firefighters carried out a finger-tip search of the railway track and land between Walton and Hersham stations. Undergrowth and bins along Station Avenue were scoured for any relevant material, drains inspected, streams and underground culverts searched by firefighters in dry suits. A police helicopter took high-resolution aerial photographs of the area to pinpoint where search teams ought to move next.

Meanwhile, a parallel media operation was in full swing. Mr Dowler, an IT consultant and his wife, Sally, a teacher at Milly's school, made two tearful appeals for news of their daughter. "Milly, come home darling, please," said Mrs Dowler. A home video showing a smiling Milly doing the ironing and playing her saxophone was released and BBC Crimewatch recorded a reconstruction of the schoolgirl's last known steps.

Still nothing. Now Surrey police were growing desperate. They put on display a school uniform similar to Milly's and appealed for people to look out for a beige rucksack, a white purse and a Nokia 3210 with a silver face and Milly written on the back. Hopes were raised only to be dashed. Somebody rang to say they had found a white purse, but it turned out not to be Milly's.

Then, out of the blue, 26 police officers, including a forensics team, began a two-day search of the Dowlers' £350,000 family home. Patio flagstones were lifted and building materials for a conservatory checked. Officers took away several boxes of materials, including the family computer and Milly's letters and diaries.

Surrey police were at pains to emphasise that the Dowlers were not suspects, and while the material from the house was examined the search went on in the back gardens, fields and lanes around Walton-on-Thames.

Police are known to be working on four theories. These are that Milly has been abducted by a stranger, that she has been taken by someone she knew, that she has gone off with somebody she met through the internet - something for which they found no evidence - or that she has run away from home.

A giant photograph of her face appeared on a Ford delivery van two weeks ago as part of a national initiative by the Missing Persons Helpline. But detectives said there is nothing in Milly's diaries to suggest she was planning to run away and her friends all speak of her happy home life. Countless family photographs showed Milly smiling and laughing.

The possibility of abduction plagued her parents. At one stage Mrs Dowler said: "I think Milly has been abducted. If anyone is holding her, please, please, give her back."

As the days have gone by by, however, the likelihood of a violent abduction have receded. At the time Milly went missing, Station Avenue would have been crowded. Surely someone would have seen a teenage girl dragged into a vehicle? But no such sighting emerged.One of the men leading the investigation, Superintendent Alan Sharp, said: "A 13-year-old like that is not going to go with someone against her will without a good old struggle."

That leaves the possibility that Milly was offered a lift by somebody she knew who has since killed her. The vast majority of murders are committed by somebody familiar to the victim and this remained one of Surrey police's greatest fears.

Could Milly have run into somebody she trusted as she left Walton station and accepted the offer of a ride home, only for something horrific to happen? Officers are desperate to find her alive but as each day goes by it becomes increasingly likely that something dreadful has taken place.

After two weeks the first sightings of a girl answering Milly's description were reported to police. Two different people driving along Rydens Road said they had seen a girl apparently crying, at the junction of Walton Park, 100 yards from Milly's home. Another motorist reported seeing a girl talking to the driver of a blue Saab. But police were never able to confirm these sightings were Milly.

Danielle Sykes made a heartfelt plea for her best friend to ring her. Another friend, Hannah MacDonald, released a notebook in which she and Milly had jotted down their thoughts on life. Milly's face continues to stare down from posters pinned everywhere. Her disappearance has cast a cloud over Walton. "Please find her," the posters begg, a chorus of despair echoed by everyone in this community.

The question that haunts this town is: what happened to the schoolgirl who had until recently walked carefree through its comfortable streets?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in