TWO people were today arrested on suspicion of murdering missing schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.School caretaker Ian Huntley, 28, and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, 25, were arrested early this morning.

TWO people were today arrested on suspicion of murdering missing schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.

School caretaker Ian Huntley, 28, and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, 25, were arrested early this morning.

Ten-year-old best friends Holly and Jessica went missing 13 days ago from their homes in the Cambridgeshire village of Soham.

Huntley, caretaker at Soham Village College, reported talking to the girls on the night they

vanished. He has been arrested on suspicion of abducting and murdering them.

Carr, a teaching assistant in the girls' class last term, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The news, which marks the first admission by the police that they believe Holly and Jessica are dead, was broken to the girls' parents early this morning before an announcement to the media.

Neither girl's body has been found.

Police were today searching the Village College and its grounds, the girls' primary school and Huntley's cottage.

They were also conducting a search at the home of Huntley's parents Kevin and Lynda, in the village of Littleport, 15 miles away.

Huntley and Carr were taken by police for questioning yesterday afternoon.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb said later that "items of major importance" to the inquiry had been found during a search of Soham Village College.

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