Police have narrowed their inquiries in the search for missing Kerran Baker, having interviewed everyone that had Blackberry Messenger contacts with her on the night she disappeared.

“The good news is that we have visited and spoken to everybody with BBM contact with Kerran after 7:00pm on 30 July,” said Chief Superintendent John Jones yesterday, saying police had talked to 10 people, although he declined to say how many were in her BBM group or how many had spoken to her late that evening.

“We have information to a degree, have some good information in terms of her travels, her movements and communications,” he said.

“It was important to ‘bottom-out’ that line of inquiry and it is positive in the sense that if we had not gotten to the bottom of that, not questioned the members [of her group], we would not have found out what was said. This is all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle,” Mr Jones said.

He indicated that police had gained a closer focus to their inquiry, which had become a criminal probe rather than a missing-persons case.

“The more we can narrow this, the better,” he said. “It is safe to say that we are moving down a line of inquiry and it is possible that someone may have abducted Kerran or, let’s face it, killed her.

“We are keeping an open mind, but it is glaringly obvious that after three weeks, we have to suspect something criminal has happened,” Mr Jones said, repeating his Friday remarks that police were ”applying the same disciplines to this as a murder investigation.”

“In the early days, it is always possible that a missing person has disappeared of their own volition or that, maybe, amnesia has befallen them,” he said. “We have to ask, though: Has she been abducted? Held against her will or, worse, has she been murdered?”

He said ”nothing startling or sinister had come out” in interviews with the BBM group, but “we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned”.

As police continued to review CCTV footage, await forensic results of physical evidence and review “the investigation carried out in the last three weeks,” he said, “investigators would take stock and look at the results they had gained.”

He declined to describe the leads police were pursuing, saying, “we will not put our cards on the table because these are very sensitive lines of inquiry and they may jeopardise the investigation, so we move to hold back some information.”

Ms Baker has been missing since the evening of 30 July, leaving her Bodden Town home after returning from Fosters Food Fair near the airport after 7pm. After friends reported their concerns on Sunday, police found groceries and her handbag in her Arrow Drive apartment. Searchers on Monday found her Honda Civic, car keys and a set of documents near Pedro Castle. Police have not released information on any other evidence.

“We are still in the dark about what happened,” Mr Jones said. “We haven’t recovered her telephone, and that telephone has not been used. We have no information as to her whereabouts and there have been no sightings.

“We have not closed the books on this,” he said. “If there is a criminal behind this, we are certain our inquiries will bring that person to justice.”