Welsh police sniffer dogs join hunt for missing girl

SPECIALIST tracker dogs are to be brought in to help in the search for a teenage schoolgirl, missing from her home for more than two weeks.

The sniffer dogs and their handlers from the Dyfed Powys force in Wales have been recruited by Tayside Police amid growing concerns for 13-year-old Michaela Hunter, who vanished from her Dundee home on 19 April.

They are to be deployed today to the Charleston area of the city where the missing schoolgirl was last seen the day after she left her home in Yeaman's Lane.

Concern is mounting daily for the safety of the pupil at St John's High School in Dundee, who had been excluded from school on the day she vanished.

Her family believe that a misguided friend has been providing Michaela with food and shelter since she disappeared but have also voiced concerns that she may be being held against her will.

Chief Inspector Suzie Mertes, who is heading the search for Michaela,

said: "They (dogs] have been particularly successful on cases where they have trailed the missing person, victim or defendant up to eight days later."

The dogs and their handlers are due to arrive in Dundee this morning and will be taken to the Craigmount Road area where the force had received reports of the last positive sighting of Michaela in the early hours of Tuesday, 20 April.