Missing UK girls dead -- police

Holly and Jessica's bodies were found in a remote woodland spot 10 miles from their homes

SOHAM, England -- Police have said that the two bodies found in woodland in eastern England are those of missing 10-year-old friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

In a statement read out in the girls' home town of Soham on Sunday, the Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police, Keith Hoddy said: "It is almost exactly two weeks since Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared from this town, sparking a massive inquiry to find them.

"It is with great sadness that I have to tell you the following news.

"It may be some days yet before we are able to positively identify the two bodies found at Common Drove, near Lakenheath in Suffolk, yesterday lunch-time.

"However, we are as certain as we possibly can be tonight that they are those of Holly and Jessica.

EXTRA INFORMATION Picture gallery: The hunt for Holly and Jessica    MORE STORIES • Soham: Community in shock  • Parents' agony    EXTRA INFORMATION • Timeline: Hope, grief and despair

"Holly and Jessica's families have been told this terrible news."

The statement removes any glimmer of hope that the girls are still alive and bring to a tragic end a two-week search for them.

Hoddy read a statement from both sets of parents.

Sharon and Leslie Chapman said: "We would like to thank everybody for their kindness and support during this very tense and traumatic time, especially family, friends and the family liaison officers.

"Whilst we appreciate your support and all your assistance in this very trying time we would like, as a family, for you to respect our privacy and allow us some time alone."

The two bodies were found at the end of this track running alongside the Lakenheath Air Base

Hoddy then read a statement from Holly's parents, Nicola and Kevin Wells.

The statement read: "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 bodies, found 10-miles from Soham on Saturday, are expected to be moved wihin the next few hours.

Forensic teams have been at the remote woodland spot at Mildenhall, in Suffolk, east England, since the two bodies were found.

A police spokesman told reporters: "They will be removed from that location within the next three hours and taken to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge for further forensic examination."

The two girls have not been seen since August 4 when they disappeared from Soham.

Detectives are questioning a local couple arrested on Saturday in connection with the girls' murders.

Ian Huntley, 28, and Maxine Carr, 25, are being questioned in connection with murder and abduction.

On Sunday, the pair appeared at separate closed magistrates' court hearings where police were granted a further 36 hours to question them.

Earlier in the day, a special church service was held at St Andrew's Church in Soham.

During the packed service, the Reverend Tim Alban Jones, vicar of Soham, said there was not a single member of the small community who had not been moved by the girls' disappearance.

"The whole town feels violated by the disappearance of Jessica and Holly," he said.

Huntley and Carr were arrested early on Saturday morning

He also spoke of the "pain and anguish" of the parents after the discovery and the "difficult and searching questions that have no easy answers."

"Where and how does God fit into all this? Does the Bible have anything to say to us in this situation?" he asked.

The events raised questions about "the depravity to which humans can sink."

Alban Jones said the girls had been "our first thought in the morning and last thought every night."

He added: "Throughout this devastating fortnight we have had the images of Holly and Jessica etched on our minds. Pictures of their happy, smiling faces have been displayed in just about every window in town."

Police officers who helped the search, the people of Soham and the nation as a whole had clung to hope that the pair would be found alive.

More than 400 police officers from 21 police forces have been involved in the hunt for the girls, and several national newspapers have offered rewards totaling more than £1 million ($1.5 million) for any information leading to their safe return. (Full story)

Huntley, a local college caretaker, who reported talking to the girls on the night they vanished, is being held on suspicion of abducting and murdering the best friends.

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

Their house, on the grounds of the girls' primary school, St Andrew's, is being painstakingly examined by a police search team, along with the school and Soham Village College on the same site, in a probe expected to last a week.

Officers have already found "items of major interest" at the college -- the town's secondary school - though police would not say what they were.

Police also searched the home of the Huntley's parents in the nearby village of Littleport.