The online campaign to help find missing St George teenager Rebecca Watts has already reached more than two million people around the world on Facebook.
The 16-year-old was last seen at her home in Crown Hill in St George a week ago. She took her laptop and mobile phone with her but no clothing or make-up and there was nothing to suggest she would be away for several days.
Police have also used Facebook Ads, targeting users in the Bristol area. Since their launch this morning these have reached more than 21,000 people in the local area and directed hundreds to the #FindBecky page on the Avon & Somerset Constabulary website.
It is also estimated that almost 400,000 people have seen tweets from the force.
The officer leading the investigation, DI Richard Ocone, said: “We hope that this large online presence will lead to someone remembering something from the area or days following Becky’s disappearance.
“We know that Becky is very keen on social media as are most girls her age and so we want our online communities to help us keep our appeal for information running.
“We’re using every resource we can to try and find Becky. We have dedicated teams of officers on the ground and they’ve been supported by the police helicopter. We also have officers from other, regional forces to help us with the search.
“We’re continuing to search the local area, concentrating on open areas and parkland. This is a routine part of a missing person’s search that we always undertake to look for anything that Becky might have dropped.
“We are continuing with our house-to-house inquiries and I would urge anyone in the local area who has yet to speak to officers to call us immediately if they think they can help us. We’ve printed hundreds of leaflets and posters and our officers on the ground will be out and about handing these out to local people.
“I would like to make a plea for everyone to get behind our online campaign to find her using #FindBecky
“We’ve also set up a dedicated page on our Force website which includes an online contact form where people can get in touch if they have any information for us.
“Anyone with information – please call us immediately on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously.”
