The 17-day hunt for Sarah Payne has sparked a massive nationwide hunt.

Day after day the family of eight-year-old Sarah made emotional pleas for her safe return, convinced she was still alive.

More than 300 police officers have been involved in the operation, handling 21,000 calls, more than three times the amount the force would usually take.

Here is a day-by-day account of the search for Sarah.

DAY 1: Saturday, July 1: At 7pm Sarah goes off with her sister and two brothers to play in a secluded wheatfield 150 metres from her grandparents' home in West Kingston. Sarah hurts her face and leaves to return alone. Her 13-year-old brother Lee follows but loses sight of her. He tells police he saw a white van and a silver Ford Mondeo in the lane just moments after Sarah disappeared.

She fails to return home and is reported to police as a missing person at 9.30pm. A dozen people help officers search the area.

DAY 2: Sunday, July 2: A full-scale search is launched involving 300 people, among them police with sniffer dogs, divers, soldiers and volunteers. Members of the public are urged to check their gardens and farm outbuildings. One hundred and fifty officers are assigned to Operation Maple. Meanwhile, 250 miles away in Cheshire, a woman helps a "distressed" little girl matching Sarah's description - and answering to her name - in a motorway services toilet at Knutsford on the M6 in Cheshire. In the evening a man in his forties is arrested at a flat in Littlehampton and a white van is towed away.

DAY 3: Monday, July 3: Another man, in his thirties, from the Crawley area, is arrested. Meanwhile, Sussex Under Water Search Unit scour storm drains leading to the sea and 600 members of the public call in with information. Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael Payne, issue a plea for help finding their "little princess".

DAY 4: Tuesday, July 4: Police continue to question the two men. Officers are granted an extra 36 hours to question the man in his forties. Sarah's parents make an emotional TV appeal. The Argus offers a £5,000 reward for information leading to her safe return.

DAY 5: Wednesday, July 5: Sarah's brother Lee takes part in an identity parade in Brighton involving the man in his 40s. Police later released both men on bail and said they were working through the Register of Sex Offenders. Sarah's mother, Sara, says she is convinced her daughter is still alive.

DAY 6: Thursday, July 6: Sarah's brothers and sister colour in a poster to encourage the police search team working from Littlehampton. It is revealed another eight-year-old girl narrowly escaped being abducted in Littlehampton on Saturday.

DAY 7: Friday, July 7: A reconstruction of Sarah's last-known movements is filmed with the help of four local children who agree to play the parts of the missing girl and her brothers and sister. Police receive more than 500 calls in response.

DAY 8: Saturday, July 8: A fresh appeal is made by Sarah's grandfather, Terry, who weeps as he reads out heart-rending messages from her brothers and sister. Meanwhile, police mount a stop-and-question operation to quiz day-trippers.

DAY 9: Sunday, July 9: The Payne family visit the nerve centre of the police operation at the Littlehampton incident room and thank officers for their tireless work in the search for Sarah. Prayers are said at the family's local church in East Preston.

DAY 10: Monday, July 10: Detectives reveal they are investigating a possible sighting of Sarah with a man at a service station. Plans to study CCTV video footage are dashed after the service station admits security cameras are not working. The upset girl, fitting Sarah's description, is seen by a woman in the ladies' toilets at Knutsford Service Station on the northbound carriageway of the M6 in Cheshire. Sarah's brothers, Luke and Lee, and her sister, Charlotte, cling to their parents as they meet detectives leading the hunt. They are also given a tour of the incident room at Littlehampton police station after asking to meet police working on the search.

DAY 11: Tuesday, July 11: A 14-year-old boy is arrested after police are given a false tip-off about Sarah. The youth phoned three times saying he had seen a girl being dropped off near the Body Shop headquarters in Littlehampton. Seventeen police units, plain clothes officers, dog handlers and the force helicopter waste three hours searching the area.

DAY 12: Wednesday, July 12: Police investigate a possible second sighting of missing Sarah at another service station. They follow up reports she was seen at a Shell garage off the A80 at Cumbernauld, near Glasgow. The alleged sighting comes after police release an e-fit image of the man seen with the young girl at the service station in Cheshire.

DAY 13: Thursday, July 13: Police say they believe a modified white Transit van could hold the key to her disappearance. An urgent appeal is issued for people who spotted a white van having its rear doors changed and internal wood panelling removed. Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley also urges people who have seen discarded van doors and panelling to come forward. The van was seen in Kingston Lane, Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, before Sarah vanished.

DAY 14: Friday, July 14: Police admit for the first time they are treating Sarah's disappearance as an abduction rather than a missing person's inquiry. They appeal to farm workers and people in rural areas to check outhouses and country properties for any evidence someone might have tried to hide. Goring mother Tricia Porter launches a campaign to get a new scheme set up to protect children in Sussex. The mother-of-four wants to see a Safety House Scheme launched, where houses would be identified for children to run to in times of danger.

DAY 15: Saturday, July 15: Sara and Michael Payne reveal Sarah had been told about Stranger Danger at school. Issuing another heartfelt plea to the public they say Sarah was unlikely to have gone off willingly with a stranger because she knew it was not safe. They describe the closeness and love of their family and describe the past days without Sarah.

DAY 16: Sunday, July 16: The Payne family and police issue another call for people with any possible information to come forward. They urge people to remain vigilant for any details which might help with the investigation.

DAY 17: Monday, July 17" Today a young girl's body is discovered in a field in Sussex. A member of the public reports the sighting at 11.30am and within minutes officers from Operation Maple, the team investigating the disappearance, are at the scene. Sarah's parents are warned to brace themselves for the worst news but Sussex Police stress the body has not been identified. The body is discovered in a field off the A29, close to Pulborough.