Amanda Dowler: Parents feared the worst but clung to the hope she was still alive

Sally and Robert Dowler said they believed their daughter had been abducted and murdered, but until yesterday they had not given up hope.

The discovery of the remains of 13-year-old Amanda must be a crushing blow for her parents and her sister Gemma, aged 16.

For the past six months Mr and Mrs Dowler, together with family and friends, had prayed for their daughter's safe return.

During the early stages of the police inquiry the devastated couple appeared before the cameras, often breaking down in tears, as they appealed for news of Amanda.

In one appeal Mrs Dowler said: "We just desperately hope she is alive. It's the only thing that keeps us going, to think that she's out there and that we're going to get her back."

Not surprisingly, the family's mood swung wildly between hope and fear as lead after lead came to nothing. On two occasions police, attempting to prepare the family for the worst, told them a body had been found. Neither turned out to be Amanda.

As the months passed, her parents came to accept that she had been murdered, but they continued to make public appeals – each one a dreadful ordeal – in the hope that new witnesses would come forward with information.

In an interview to mark Amanda's disappearance six months ago today, Mrs Dowler, 43, said: "The not knowing is just awful because there is still that element of doubt.

"I think in the beginning my brain went into overload. I couldn't cope because there was no answer. Right now if you asked me 'what do you think happened?' I'd say she has been murdered."

After a body found in the Thames a month after Amanda's disappearance turned out to be that of a missing elderly woman, Mr Dowler, 50, told of the family's mixed emotions. "The relief when we heard it wasn't her was obviously fantastic," he said.

"But then there was also that feeling we are back to square one, we still don't know what has happened."