Two people have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl in Bristol. The move came after a laptop computer found during the search for Rebecca Watts had been handed into police.
She had left her father’s home in the St George area at about 11am on 19 February with her phone, laptop and tablet computer, but didn’t tell her family or friends where she was going. There have been no reported sightings.
Avon and Somerset police have been searching for the teenager, joined by large groups of volunteers searching parks, woods and open spaces and handing out thousands of leaflets with a photograph of Rebecca.
In a message to his daughter at a police press conference last week, Rebecca’s father, Darren Goldsworthy, said she was “in no trouble at all” and appealed to any of her friends with information about her to contact police or her family. “You might think you are helping Becky by not telling the police where she is, but you are not,” he said.
The family last week hit back at internet trolls who had been targeting Goldsworthy, 51, after forensics officers had searched the family home and car.
Police have drafted in sniffer dogs from neighbouring Welsh forces and are running an online #FindBecky campaign. They estimate that almost 400,000 people have seen tweets about the search, and Facebook adverts targeting users in the Bristol area have reached more than 21,000 people.
Her mother, Tanya Watts, revealed that the teenager had disappeared on her brother Danny’s 20th birthday.
