Man held in missing woman search

Police announce they have arrested a man and have him in custody after appealing for sightings of taxi A man has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Sian O’Callaghan, who disappeared after leaving a nightclub in Swindon on Saturday. Area commander Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley announced the news after police searching for the woman appealed for sightings of a taxi. “A short time ago a man was arrested on suspicion of the kidnap of Sian O’Callaghan and is on route to a police custody centre. Sian’s family have been informed,” he said. “Further information will be released in due course but it is not appropriate for me to make any further comment at this time.” The taxi, a green Toyota Avensis estate, was seen between Swindon and the Savernake forest near Marlborough, Wiltshire, shortly after O’Callaghan was last seen early on Saturday morning. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said: “I am urgently appealing for any witness sightings of a green Toyota Avensis estate with taxi markings seen between 3am-4am and 12pm-9pm on Saturday 19 March 2011 between Swindon and Savernake.” Police issued a further appeal over items they believe were in O’Callaghan’s handbag. A spokeswoman said: “Her handbag is described as a large dark-coloured bag with a beige flower on the side. “In her handbag she is likely to have had items very similar to the following: a distinctively patterned front door key; a black car key with yellow insulation tape; a Tesco Clubcard key fob; a plastic yellow Kinder egg casing containing a small animal with a furry belly; and lip gloss. “Sian is also believed to have been wearing or have with her a DKNY watch with fake diamonds.” Police released images of examples of some of the items. Hundreds of members of the public had been helping police search the forest but are now being asked to stay away. Specialist dog teams have been called in. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” O’Callaghan’s family thanked the public for their help in the search for “our beautiful girl”. In a statement released by police they said: “We have been so touched by the support shown by the community that we wanted to express our thanks. “The sheer numbers of people who have given up their time to help search for Sian and distribute appeal posters are overwhelming and we couldn’t ask for better support from the public, police and media.” A reward of £40,000 has been offered for information leading to the discovery of O’Callaghan. The family said they were grateful for the reward and hoped it might help to encourage someone to come forward with information. “This is an extremely difficult time for us and we continue to hope and pray that our beautiful girl is found soon.” O’Callaghan, an office administrator, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am to walk the half mile to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of her mobile phone records suggests that about 30 minutes after she left the club, her phone was somewhere in the 1,800-hectare (4,500-acre) Savernake forest, near Marlborough. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said further analysis of the records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. “We have got a better idea of where we could be searching,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we are going to find anything specific but we have got more of an idea from the technology where to look first.” Crime Police Steven Morris guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.