THE overjoyed parents of a schoolgirl who had gone missing have thanked The Chronicle for our help in tracing her.

Year 11 student Charlene Diana Farrall was found safe and well three weeks after she suddenly vanished following a normal day at Helsby High School. Charlene's disappearance sparked an international police hunt. She was later traced to Ireland and has been reunited with her parents.

Cheshire Constabulary spokeswoman Jacqui Hanson said: 'Charlene Farrall has been found safe and well.

'She was found late on Saturday night in Southern Ireland by Southern Ireland police.

'Police inquiries will continue now to determine how she travelled to Ireland and how she managed to live when she was there.

'Her parents have been informed and they, together with the police, thank all the Chester media for their efforts in helping track down Charlene.'

The 15-year-old is now back living with her mum and dad at their home in Long Looms, Great Barrow. She is being interviewed by Chester police about her disappearance.

Charlene went missing on Thursday, September 13.

At that time, her distraught parents John, 46, and Diana, 40, told The Chronicle how they just wanted Charlene, their youngest daughter, to return home.

Mrs Farrall, a midday assistant at Barrow Primary School, made her usual journey to a bus stop at Dunham Hill, near Helsby, that day, expecting to collect her daughter from the school bus.

But Charlene was nowhere to be seen. A teacher at the Chester Road school contacted the family to say the teenager had not attended a pre-arranged meeting.

Charlene had gone to school with her normal bag and dressed in her school uniform.

Although she has gone missing before, she has never stayed away from home

for such a long period of time.

A month ago Charlene went missing for one night and returned home the next day, telling her parents she had slept rough under Stamford Bridge.

Mrs Farrall said she could not think of any reason why Charlene would disappear.

Police officers had spent weeks conducting searches in the area.

On Sunday, September 16, a police sniffer dog searched the grounds of Helsby High School while officers quizzed shopkeepers, taxi drivers and passers-by.

Mr Farrall said Charlene enjoys going to Helsby High and she hopes for a career in the military police.

The couple have another daughter Melissa, 19, and two sons Daniel, 17, and James, 15, who attends Kingsway High School in Newton.