Shannon Matthews kidnap: BBC drama The Moorside brings back memories of covering a case which gripped nation

Lauren Chadwick interviews Karen Matthews and Craig Meehan for the Dewsbury Reporter.

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Ask people nowadays about the disappearance of Shannon Matthews and they'll swear they knew all along that her mother was behind it.

Perhaps they are embarrassed to admit they believed, like the many people who searched day and night in freezing cold conditions, that Shannon had been snatched by a stranger on her walk home from school.

But I remember the constant chatter everywhere you went in Dewsbury about that poor missing girl, how dreadful it must be for her family and the fears so many held about what had become of her.

I remember an elderly lady telling me how she looked in all the hedgerows every day when she walked her dog, terrified at what she might find but equally worried that a vital clue could be missed.

And the pensioner who posted some of his savings to the family to help fund the search, only to later learn he had been duped.

If everyone knew her mother was behind it all during the 24 days before Shannon was found, they certainly weren't saying it in earshot of anyone from the local paper.

I was a trainee reporter on the Dewsbury Reporter back in 2008 and took the call from the police to say that our weekly press briefing was cancelled on February 20. The reason? We'd be getting details shortly about a nine-year-old girl who had been missing all night.

The scene in last week's episode of The Moorside which showed police fanning out across a field brought back vivid memories of the early days of the search as officers were drafted in from all over Yorkshire.