Thursday, March 24, 2011

Man arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Sian O'Callaghan

 

Wiltshire Police are believed to have swooped on a taxi driver shortly after
11am as he was parked in a supermarket taxi rank in north Swindon.

Miss O’Callaghan, 22, has not been seen since she left a nightclub in the town
in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley said the missing woman’s family had been
informed about this “significant development”.

When asked if he thought Miss O’Callaghan was still alive, he said: “We hope
she is alive, we are certainly working on finding her and recovering her.”

Unconfirmed reports say the taxi was filled with pictures of Sian and appeal
posters seeking information about the missing brunette.

The man arrested was taken to a local police station and his car was towed
from the rank at the Asda supermarket in Haydon Wick.

Earlier, the police had appealed for any information about a green Toyota
Avensis taxi which was seen between Swindon and the Savernake Forest, near
Marlborough, shortly after Miss O’Callaghan was last seen alive.

It is understood that the arrested man was aged between 40 and 50 and was
about to pick up a fare when he was detained.

On Wednesday night, police said they were "very close” to identifying
Miss O’Callaghan’s whereabouts.

Specialist sniffer dogs have been brought in to help track down the office
administrator after more than 400 volunteers joined in the search.

Experts also have been examining specific "hotspots" within the
dense 4,500-acre Savernake Forest.

Detectives using mobile phone technology pinpointed several areas of interest
to the police and allowed them to rule out large areas of the forest.

Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said the
inquiry was moving at a "rapid pace" with "significant lines
of inquiry being developed".

He added: "The public have been fantastic in support of the search for
Sian O'Callaghan and I'm very grateful.

"I've been able to use new technological techniques to provide a tighter
search parameter and have been able to rule out large areas of the
six-and-a-half-mile radius we have all been searching."

Police revealed earlier this week that phone masts put Miss O'Callaghan's
mobile phone somewhere in the 4,500-acre forest just 34 minutes after she

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