Alice Gross investigation: RAF joins search for missing teenager

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/28/alice-gross-raf-search-missing-teenager

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Detectives searching for the missing teenager Alice Gross have drafted in the RAF as the investigation reaches its fifth week.

Scotland Yard confirmed that the air force had helped pinpoint areas to search near the Grand Union canal towpath in west London where the 14-year-old was last seen.

RAF officers are providing aerial analysis to the search team, including pointing out sections of disturbed earth to detectives.

Their involvement came as officers pored over hours of footage from CCTV cameras for possible clues about Alice’s disappearance. A team of 30 detectives is reviewing 35 terabytes of material – equivalent to about 10,000 hours of video – from 300 CCTV cameras covering a six square mile area.

The schoolgirl was seen on CCTV cameras at 4.26pm on 28 August, walking under a bridge heading towards Hanwell, having left her home at about 1pm.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said: “We can confirm that as part of the search operation, the RAF has provided assistance in the form of aerial analysis to identify potential areas of interest to officers. This continues to be a massive investigation. A range of officers and staff from across the Met are taking part in the ever-expanding search for Alice.

“To date the search has involved the Met’s underwater and confined space search team, marine support unit, search dogs, air support unit, territorial support group, local borough officers, volunteer police cadets, visual images identification and detections officers, plus licensed search officers.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was providing “routine support” to the search for Alice.

The massive ground-level search, which Scotland Yard has said is the biggest since the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, continued on Sunday. Runners taking part in the Ealing half-marathon wore yellow ribbons as they completed the route in an attempt to jog people’s memory.

Det Supt Carl Mehta said on Saturday: “CCTV is clearly crucial in our investigation, but we still need the public’s help and I want to hear from anyone who saw Alice during the afternoon of the Thursday she was last seen.

“Our searches are continuing in the local area today, and there are extra officers involved. I’d like to thank the community who have been so supportive and patient. In over 30 years of policing I have never seen such a strong community reaction, this is a community that is totally behind the search to find Alice and bring her home.”

Detectives are still trying to trace prime suspect Arnis Zalkalns, who police believe encountered Alice shortly before the last known sighting of her. Officers fear Zalkalns, 41, who was convicted in Latvia in 1998 for murdering his wife, may have fled abroad.

There is a £20,000 reward for any information that helps police to find Alice. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the incident room on 020 8358 0100, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.