Missing UK girls: Unidentified bodies found

The two 10-year-old friends have not been seen for 13 days.

SOHAM, England -- British police investigating the abduction of 10-year-old friends Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in the eastern town of Soham were tight-lipped Saturday about the discovery of two bodies in a remote woodland area near the town.

The unidentified bodies were found Saturday afternoon in Thetford Forest Park in Mildenhall, which is about 10 miles from where the girls disappeared almost two weeks ago.

"Police are now making urgent inquiries to establish the identity of two bodies and to determine if there are any suspicious circumstances," a Cambridgeshire police spokesman said. "We do not have any further information at this stage as to the identities or sex of the two bodies."

EXTRA INFORMATION • Soham: Community in shock  • Parents' agony    EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Hope, grief and despair

Earlier Saturday, Cambridgeshire police announced that a 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of abduction and murder, and a 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder. It was the first time that police indicated they fear Jessica and Holly might be dead.

Authorities did not release the identities of the suspects, who are being held at separate police stations in Cambridgeshire. Police searched the home of the male suspect's parents in the nearby village of Littleport.

Jessica and Holly were last seen on August 4, wearing identical Manchester United football shirts.

Police officers stand at the top of a track running alongside the Lakenheath Air Base, England, where two bodies were found Saturday.

A caretaker at Soham Village College said he saw the girls walk by his house that night while he was washing his dog. His girlfriend once worked at St. Andrew's Primary School, which the girls attended. They both knew the girls.

He said in more than one interview with the media, "I must have been one of the last people to see them alive."

Police questioned the couple for almost seven hours on Friday and searched their house, which is near St. Andrew's Primary School, with what they described as highly sensitive equipment.

Early Saturday, police said they recovered "items of major interest" from Soham Village College that they hope will lead to finding the girls.

The families of the missing girls were the first to be told of the arrests, which happened at 4 a.m. (0300 GMT), police said.

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

Geoff Fisher, head teacher at the girls' school broke down in tears after hearing of the arrests.

Local people are leaving flowers at St Andrews Church in the town of Soham, where a search opearation is ongong for the missing girls.

"I'm devastated. I have been clinging for the last two weeks to the hope that Jessica and Holly would be found alive, clinging to the hope that they would be starting school in September," he said.

"We have been through the roller coaster of the last fortnight and the news this morning was just devastating, I felt totally numb."

After learning of Saturday's arrests and the discovery of the two bodies, Soham's Methodist minister, Alan Ashton, said it was the "worst possible news."

"I think if the bodies that have been discovered this afternoon are confirmed to be the bodies of Holly and Jessica then certainly the despair and anger that the town has felt, which is nothing to the distress and anger of Holly and Jessica's parents, will be intensified," Ashton said.