The photographs of two little girls, smiling and wearing pretty summer dresses as they nestle beside their foster-parents, have appeared all too frequently in the British press during the past four months.
Until earlier this week, when Mr Jeffrey Bramley (35) and his wife Jennifer (34) wrote a letter to the media pleading to be allowed to keep the girls with them, it was largely a mystery to social services and the police why the couple had gone on the run with Jade (five) and her half-sister, Hannah (three).
The hand-written letter, posted on January 11th in Nottingham, provides the first real clue as to why the couple fled their home in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, on September 14th. Their journey has taken them, possibly, to Ireland, Nottingham and across England to North Yorkshire. Unofficial sightings have placed them in Lanzarote.
In Scotland, a Skegness store owner has handed police film which could show the fugitive family browsing in his surf shop, officers said last night. A Skegness police spokeswoman said it had received the tape and forwarded it to the Cambridgeshire force, which refused to comment on whether the family might be the Bramleys.
The Bramleys' neatly-presented letter, written in blue ink, tells the story of "two good, honest, caring people", who desperately wanted to be Jade and Hannah's "Forever Mummy and Daddy" but who felt "ignored" and let down by social workers at Cambridgeshire social services.
The letter includes a litany of complaints about their treatment in the face of mounting bureaucracy. Once the decision was taken by Cambridgeshire social services that the Bramleys were not suitable foster-parents, a legal notice was issued for Jade and Hannah's return. The notice prevented them from making an adoption application with the Adoption Court. This measure, the Bramleys claim, prevented a judge from hearing what Jade and Hannah really wanted - "to stay with the mummy and daddy they love" - and from hearing the testimony of their local doctor and friends who supported their attempts to keep the girls with them.
"To take the children away from the loving, caring parents that they want to be with is a crime not only against Jade and Hannah, but to all humanity and good parents . . . Will someone help us to be legally their mummy and daddy forever, making the hopes and dreams of these two wonderful girls come true?" they wrote.
Jade and Hannah came to the Bramley home last March after their natural mother, Ms Jackie Bennett, felt she could no longer cope with two children and gave the girls up for adoption. At one stage during this tragic story Ms Bennett decided she wanted her children back and mounted a legal campaign to be reunited with them. But that was before the Bramleys fled Cambridgeshire and now, with the publication of their letter, she has decided the children are better off with the couple. Writing in the Express this week, Ms Bennett pleaded with the Bramleys to bring Jade and Hannah home. While admitting she was "annoyed" with them for abducting her daughters, she sympathised with their efforts to adopt the girls. Since their flight, public sympathy has been almost entirely with the Bramleys and the little girls, who after earlier disruption at last seemed to be finding the beginnings of a structured life with the couple. Jade's father has, however, questioned whether that sympathy is misplaced. Mr Paul Duckett condemned the Bramleys' attempt to win public support, branding the abduction "a terrible crime. They cannot be allowed to get away with kidnap."
That the girls should be returned immediately is a view shared by Cambridgeshire social services, which has been defending its decision not to allow the Bramleys to adopt the girls. A spokesman said yesterday it had "acted correctly" in deciding that their lack of parenting skills disqualified the Bramleys from adopting Jade and Hannah. The spokesman told The Irish Times: "This was only the second time in 10 years that we had taken this decision and it is an indication of how seriously we took this case.
"The letter is the first genuine contact we have had and it shows that the Bramleys are very distressed and emotional about the decision that was taken."
The Bramleys have been described by relatives as Mr and Mrs Average.
Just where they have fled with those two "bright, intelligent, articulate children" with only u £5,000 in savings is anybody's guess. But what is certain is that this ordinary couple, whatever their motives, cannot remain under cover for much longer while the pleas for their return grow louder every day.