When Kayleigh Haywood’s father dropped her off outside of Ibstock Community College last Friday, he would never have known it may have been the last time he would see his daughter.
Kayleigh, 15, last spoke with her parents the next morning, after it’s believed she spent the evening with friends, but she hasn’t contacted them since that time and now police have confirmed they are treating her case as murder.
Two men were arrested on Monday on suspicion of kidnap and now they have been rearrested on suspicion of murder. They remain in custody for questioning.
“Since we started looking for her we have found her mobile phone in Melbourne Road, Ibstock and items of clothing which we believe are hers in the Ibstock and Diseworth areas,” Detective Chief Superintendent David Sandall said earlier.
“In all the circumstances, we fear the worst and have told her family to prepare themselves that we are now treating her disappearance as a murder enquiry.”
Kayleigh’s distraught parents, Stephanie Haywood and Martin Whitby, have issued a statement and have pleaded with the public for information.
The statement read: “We just need to know what has happened to our baby girl.We have not seen Kayleigh since Friday. It is breaking our hearts and we are shedding tear after tear. We love Kayleigh so much and without her our family is incomplete. A big part of our lives has gone.”
Officers from across the East Midlands have been called in to help search for the teenager.