Hopes that missing teenagers Chantelle Watson and Kelly Monk are alive and well were raised after a friend spoke to them by phone.

Chantelle, 13, and Kelly, 15, who are neighbours in Locksley Close, Southchurch, have not been seen since Saturday night when they told their mothers they were going to a party.

Missing - Kelly Monk and Chantelle Watson

They have not heard from them since, but police have revealed a mutual friend of the girls told them she had spoken to Kelly on a mobile phone, thought to have been Chantelle's.

Today, the 13-year-old's mother Anne Dalipi, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant and has a three-year-old son Nicholas, said: "It is something, but I can't relax until I've spoken to Chani myself.

"This is no way to live, trying to get through each day at a time by imagining everything's normal and really she's at school.

"I hope they've gone away on a bit of an adventure and they'll be back soon.

"If they have put us through this hell I'll be angry, but I just want her back and she's not in any trouble."

Friends of the girls at Cecil Jones High School, in Eastern Avenue, have been left upset over the disappearance.

Headteacher Bob Hellen said: "The police have been into the school and spoken with us and we allowed them to speak with the pupils."

Mrs Monk was too upset to talk about her daughter's disappearance.

PC Tony Galob, of Shoebury police, has been called in to work on the case after he helped in the search for missing Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman last year.

Published Wednesday, February 5, 2003

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