Parents of missing 8-year-old strong in face of anguish

By BILLY ADAMS Herald Correspondent

LONDON - For the past two weeks Sara Payne has been living every mother's worst nightmare.

One minute her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, was playing happily in a field. Then she vanished and, despite a huge police hunt and worldwide publicity, has still to be found.

The Payne family's normal existence has been shattered as day after day they are subjected to an ordeal of horrifying proportions. Sarah's predicament is unthinkable.

"If you have got her please send her back to her family," pleaded Sara Payne in one of many emotional appeals she has made since the little girl went missing. "We know you love her as much as we do. Of course you do, nobody wouldn't."

One summer evening Sarah had been playing "dinosaurs" in a cornfield with her two older brothers, Lee and Luke, and her younger sister, Charlotte.

After falling and scratching her face, she decided to head back to her grandparents' home at Kingston, West Sussex, in southeast England.

It may have been only a two-minute walk along a secluded lane, and less than 200m away, but Sarah never made it back and that was the last anyone saw of her.

Lee told police he had seen a white van and silver Ford Mondeo travelling up and down the country road, and when he got there Sarah was nowhere to be seen.

A few hours later her frantic family called the police and it was only hours before pictures of the smiling schoolgirl were appearing in every British newspaper and TV news programme.

Police treated the case as a missing-person inquiry. But they knew abduction was the most likely scenario, and as Operation Maple swung into action, they were already interviewing registered sex offenders.

The police needed to gain maximum publicity for their investigation, and in the Paynes they found a family prepared to face up to the media not just once, but repeatedly.

It has been perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the case so far.

Distressed families can usually handle only one emotional appearance in front of the cameras before retreating from the spotlight, but Sara and Mike Payne, both 31, have attended press conferences almost daily.

"They are remarkable," said police spokesman Chief Inspector Mike Alderson. "We have been very lucky that Mike and Sara have been able to do this.

"They want to be involved. It is a way of coping. And speaking to the media has been something for them to focus on and enables them to believe they are doing all they can.

"They are so anxious to help that we have had to limit their number of appearances before the cameras."

Fulfilling a role usually carried out by the police, the Paynes have worked from notes to put across appeals and reminders of lines of inquiry still unresolved.

The level of public interest has been enormous. It emerged that there had been a possible sighting of Sarah at a motorway service station 400km from where she disappeared, and when police released a computer-generated image of the man she may have been with, they were astonished by the response.

Calls were coming in at the rate of 1000 an hour at their peak, some from as far afield as Israel and Greece.

Two men were arrested early in the inquiry, but freed on police bail. Another man from Liverpool was arrested and released without charge.

"We have been overwhelmed," said Sussex Police Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo.

"All the calls are motivated by a genuine desire to help but obviously most turn out not to give us anything of value. But we would much rather that than no calls at all."

The number of children killed by strangers in Britain remains at the same level as 25 years ago - between five and seven a year.

But today parents are more frightened than ever of their children going missing, and it is rare to see a young child nts boy or girl nte playing outside unsupervised.

Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper, the Sun, has offered a £50,000 ($166,000) reward to find Sarah, and her favourite pop band, Steps, recorded a special video message in the hope she would see it.

At one press conference, Sarah's grandfather, Terry Payne, wept as he read letters written by his missing granddaughter's brothers and sister. "Please let her go because I love her, I love her, I love her," wrote her little sister, Charlotte.

"It's tearing our lives apart," said Payne, shaking visibly. "Somebody's got Sarah and we want her back."

As he left the room, police officers and journalists were in tears. Some of the 300-strong police team, who are working around the clock, have become so distressed they have been given counselling.

But no one can share, or imagine, the torment of Sarah's family. They firmly believe she is still alive, and being held against her will. "I think someone has taken her and fallen in love with her," said dad Mark on ITV's current affairs show, Tonight. "That's the only explanation I can give."

Mum Sara again appealed to the abductor to let her go. "She needs us and we need her just to carry on. She is our life. Our family name for Sarah is our princess and that's just what she is. She's a soft and gentle little girl. She hasn't got a horrible bone in her body."

But officers involved with the case are less optimistic, and know they are most likely to be looking for a body. Despite the huge response, they have had few leads.

Superintendent Phil Clarke, who is in charge of the search teams, conceded that Sarah could be hidden in undergrowth and urged landowners, gamekeepers, farmers, utility workers, walkers and people familiar with the countryside to check places where someone might want to hide something.

"There is an intention on the part of the person or people hiding her that she should not be found," said Clarke.

And until she is, the Payne family's nightmare will go on.