Police press release:
Our online campaign to help find missing Bristol teenager Rebecca Watts has reached more than 2 million people.
Rebecca, known as Becky, 16, was last seen at her home address on Crown Hill, St George, Bristol, last Thursday morning (19/02).
She took her laptop and mobile phone with her – but no clothing or make-up. Nothing to suggest she would be away for several days.
In addition to a robust police investigation on the ground, we have called on our online communities to help us find Becky.
We know she is very social media saavy and so called upon the public to help spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.
We estimate that almost 400,000 people have seen our tweets and almost 22,000 people have engaged with our tweets in some way – either re-tweeting,* making them favourite tweets or clicking on them.
Our appeals have reached over 2 million people on Facebook around the world, with 30,959 shares worldwide (including Goa, New Zealand and USA).
We have also used Facebook Ads - targeting users in the Bristol area. Since their launch this morning (26/02), these have reached more than 21,000 people in the local area and directed hundreds to our #FindBecky page on our website.
Officer leading the investigation, DI Richard Ocone said: "We hope that this large online presence will lead to someone remembering something from the area or days following Becky’s disappearance.
"We know that Becky is very keen on social media as are most girls her age and so we want our online communities to help us keep our appeal for information running.
"We’re using every resource we can to try and find Becky. We have dedicated teams of officers on the ground and they’ve been supported by the police helicopter.
"We also have officers from other, regional Forces to help us with the search.
“We’re continuing to search the local area, concentrating on open areas and parkland. This is a routine part of a missing persons search that we always undertake to look for anything that Becky might have dropped.
“We are continuing with our house to house enquiries and I would urge anyone in the local area who has yet to speak to officers to call us immediately if they think they can help us.
“We’ve printed hundreds of leaflets and posters and our officers on the ground will be out and about handing these out to local people.
"I would like to make a plea for everyone to get behind our online campaign to find her using #FindBecky.
“We’ve also set up a dedicated page on our Force website which includes an online contact form where people can get in touch if they have any information for us.
"Anyone with information - please call us immediately on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously."
https://www.avonandsomerset.police....ssing-rebecca-watts-reaches-2milllion-people/
