While some police officers were being sent home to return refreshed the next day, the Moulsecoomb community was fully deployed. Everyone did anything they could. CB radio buff Yann Svenski corralled a group of friends to search the local area for the girls. They diligently scoured the nooks and crannies others might miss.
Nestled between the Moulsecoomb and Hollingdean estates, tucked behind what was Brighton Polytechnic’s Cockcroft Building, is Moulsecoomb railway station, at the time a recent addition to Brighton’s infrastructure. Nearby, a network of paths and an underpass link the two areas with the station and each other. At night the seclusion of this otherwise commonly used cut-through creates an eeriness that keeps many away.
In the small hours of Friday morning, Yann and his group were searching a patch of fenced-off land next to the footpath to Hollingdean, when one of their torches picked out something through the railings.
One of the nimbler searchers vaulted over the fence for a closer look. Slightly disheartened, he saw it was just an inside-out blue sweatshirt that looked as if it had been dumped. It seemed strangely dry given the moist grass on which it lay but as it bore no relevance to the two missing girls, he left it hanging on the fence.