Hunt for missing student Libby: Police bring in infrared cameras
‘We want to think there’s still hope’
POLICE searching for missing student Libby Squire are deploying infrared cameras in the hope they may still find her alive.
Ten days after she vanished, the massive search operation continued yesterday as officers used the cameras to check garden sheds, outbuildings and other confined spaces for body heat.
Pawel Relowicz, a Polish father-of-two, was still being questioned over her abduction as detectives hunted for evidence that could help explain what has happened to the 21-year-old undergraduate.
Relowicz was last night charged with other offences apparently unrelated to the inquiry.
The charges were outraging public decency for an incident on January 19, an offence of voyeurism on Boxing Day and three counts of burglary for offences between December 2017 and last month.
He has been remanded in custody to appear before Hull magistrates today.
Police said they continued to investigate Miss Squire’s disappearance and that Relowicz was still ‘under investigation’.
Meanwhile, her parents remained helpless – and are clinging to the hope that police could still find her.
Lisa and Russell Squire showed remarkable resilience as they attended a ‘prayer vigil’ for Miss Squire close to the search operation in Hull.
They were among 80 worshippers who gathered at Hull Community Church for the emotional ceremony, which included hymns and poems. Their three other children were thought to be present.
Mrs Squire embraced several members of the congregation, who were simply strangers offering support, and also hugged a policewoman as she left.
One woman at the vigil said: ‘It was so emotional. Everyone expected Libby’s family to break down. But they didn’t.
‘We didn’t want it to be like a funeral. So although the mood was sombre and sad, there were jovial moments. We want to think there is still hope.’
Humberside Police are using every resource available to find out what has happened to Miss Squire. Marine units have searched the Barmston Drain waterway, the River Hull, and a large pond a short walk from her home.
The force’s helicopter is surveying the surrounding area, while dozens of officers are scouring streets and parkland in the hunt for a breakthrough. The Oak Road playing fields, scene of so much police activity in recent days, were being swept for evidence again yesterday. Officers used chainsaws to cut back brambles which had been hampering the operation.
Less than a mile from Miss Squire’s student home, a pains- taking search of the terrace house where suspect Relowicz, 24, lived with his wife and two children also continued. Officers used ladders and a camera mounted on a 20ft pole to check the guttering.
They have previously taken away bags of evidence for examination.
Neighbours on the suspect’s street have reportedly been given a form to fill out which included questions about the suspect, his car, the night the student went missing and any suspicious activity they may have noticed.
Miss Squire, a philosophy student at Hull University, was last seen on a bench close to her home at 11.40pm on Thursday, January 31.
Police have been studying CCTV that may have shown her getting into a car at 12.09am. The student was said to be ‘very drunk’ after being refused admission to a nightclub in town and returning home in a taxi.
She did not go into her house and instead walked up to the main road and sat on the bench next to a bus stop.
The police investigation, which has involved analysis of hundreds of hours of CCTV, led to the arrest of meat factory worker Relowicz on suspicion of her abduction on Wednesday evening.
On Friday his mother Marzena Relowicz told the Mail she would ‘rather die than know he is guilty’.
Humberside Police said that despite the arrest, their focus remained on finding Miss Squire.
A spokesman said: ‘Our priority remains to find Libby and support her family at this incredibly distressing time.’