It was shaping up to be a busy morning that Saturday in May, 2008 at St Anne Street Police Station in Liverpool, England.

Inside, the front-counter staff prepared themselves for the usual calls and concerns that tended to accompany the morning after the Friday night before.

Having dealt with a few walk-ins already, it had just gone 8.30 when the front door swung open and two women entered, carrying one large rucksack and an over-the-shoulder sports bag between them.

There wasn't much that the staff on duty there hadn't seen, but something about these two was a little different.

The women, middle-aged, with one wearing a short lime green puffer jacket and the other, a long red coat, appeared to be identical twins and were clearly in a state of agitation.

As the woman in the green jacket sat down, the other approached the desk.

As the woman explained to the counter-staff, they had just got off the ferry that morning from Dublin, having made their way from County Court.

The woman who gave her name as Sabina Erickson needed help because her partner, with whom she lived in Ireland, had kidnapped her children.

After taking a few more details, the counter-staff suggested Sabina take a seat while they made a few calls.

Sabina, as it transpired, was a Swedish national who'd been living in the town of Mallow in Ireland for the past few years with her partner and children.

Her sister, Ursula Erickson, who lived in the United States, had flown to Ireland the previous day to spend some time with Sabina.

Now, for reasons that weren't entirely clear, the pair were sat in a police station, in Liverpool.

Having taken Sabina's address and contact number, an officer on duty made a quick call to the Guarda, the Republic of Ireland's police force.

The officer suggested they send a car round to Sabina's address to investigate her accusation.

It was almost three hours later, when Guarda officers arrived at Sabina's home address, only to find her partner and her children there, safe and sound.

With no obvious sign of anything untoward, having taken place.

As the partner explained, with Sabina's sister, Ursula, having just arrived after the blue the day before, the two sisters had spent the day together before coming home to sleep.

When he woke up the following morning, they were nowhere to be found.

The Guarda called the officer at Centan Street Police Station to relay the information, but by that time, Sabina and Ursula had gone.

Some 60 miles south of Liverpool, along the M6 motorway, Melissa Dutton, the manager of a service station, located just outside Keel, was about to take her lunch,

when she was contacted by the driver of a coach heading from Liverpool to Victoria Station in London.

The driver was requesting help with two of his passengers that he was having difficulty with.

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