A 13-YEAR-OLD boy and a youth aged 17 who were being questioned about the murder of schoolgirl Jade Matthews were last night released without charge.
The two were freed only hours after police on Merseyside had successfully applied to keep them in custody overnight for further questioning.
Earlier in the evening another 17 year old, who had volunteered himself at a police station with the other youth on Monday night, was also allowed home.
The 13 year old had walked into a police station in North Merseyside on Tuesday night, accompanied by an adult, after a police appeal.
Jade (9), of Eaton Avenue, Bootle, was found on a railway track just over a mile from her home after disappearing while playing with friends on Sunday evening. She had been beaten to death with a thick wooden stave.
Police said yesterday someone who knew the schoolgirl had positively identified her as being with a brown haired boy aged about 13 or 14 at a spot halfway between her home and the railway siding where her body was found.
A second possible sighting only 25 minutes later was of a girl who could have been Jade being pushed along on a mountain bike by a boy. The girl was said to have an injury to her forehead and blood on her teeth.
Police are still appealing for help in tracing three boys aged nine to 14 one wearing a distinctive gold and black Liverpool FC away strip football shirt who were seen on the railway track around 9 p.m. on the night Jade met her death.
Experts are still studying video tapes from security cameras on buildings overlooking the railway line, where Jade's body was found by a police dog handler, to try to enhance images of people seen on the track during the period Jade was murdered.
Tonight school friends and neighbours of Jade prayed at a special candle lit vigil at the church of St John and St James only 200 yards from the home she shared with mother Denise (31), and stepfather Stephen (37).