As police combed the wasteland and dredged the ponds of West Yorkshire for a sixth fruitless day, detectives began to speak privately of their fears that nine-year-old Shannon Matthews would never be found alive.

“History sadly shows us that after four days in cases such as this, there is usually a tragic outcome,” lamented one officer. “We are hoping that this is an exception.”

18 days later, after the largest police hunt in the county since the days of the Yorkshire Ripper, it was proved to be so. In the base of a divan bed at 26 Lidgate Gardens, a terraced property less than a mile from her Dewsbury home, Shannon was found, shaken and scared, but very much alive.

When Shannon failed to return home from school following a swimming trip on a bleak February afternoon, it seemed to many observers at first that this was a simple case of another unhappy child running away from a dysfunctional family. Shannon was no Madeleine McCann - she was from a grim northern estate, one of seven siblings by five different fathers, separated from the dad she loved by family disputes and even, we soon learned, discussing the possibility of absconding with friends.

But her frantic relatives insisted otherwise and the police, realising they were dealing with a potential abduction, launched one of the biggest search operations seen in recent British history. Within hours, 200 officers had descended on Dewsbury Moor estate and - joined by scores of concerned friends, relatives and neighbours - mounted a round-the-clock search in often freezing temperatures to find the little girl. Gardens and parks were scoured, sheds burst open, bins overturned. Photographs were distributed: Shannon playing in the grass with the family dog, Shannon grinning proudly in her school uniform, Shannon’s distinctive pink furry boots, branded Bratz, a television show she adored.

As the days passed, and with no clue as to the child’s whereabouts, more and more resources were diverted to the search. A nearby police training centre was closed to allow more officers to join the hunt, television and poster appeals were launched and helicopters scoured the search area. Divers were twice called in to dredge a local pond, from which more than 250 items were recovered, none of them belonging to Shannon. Fifty specialist officers were drafted in to examine wheelie bins on the streets of Dewsbury Moor. As the search continued into a second week with still no sign of the missing girl, detectives ominously revealed that “body” dogs – specially trained to sniff out human remains – were being used, and spoke of their fears that Shannon had “fallen into the wrong hands.”

At times, the family itself fell under suspicion. Rumours of family rows, domestic violence and even of the involvement of Shannon’s stepfather, Craig Meehan, wafted from Dewsbury Moor into the pages of national newspapers. Shannon’s mother Karen made a tearful television appearance, pleading for her daughter’s safe return and flatly denying that her partner was capable of such harm.

Three weeks passed, and still there was no trace of Shannon. Detectives insisted there would be no let up in the hunt, which by now involved over 300 officers and almost half of Britain’s specialist search dogs. Thousands of local residents had been interviewed with some 1,500 motorists stopped for questioning. Nearly 3,000 homes and businesses had been searched without a single scrap of evidence being uncovered – extremely rare in such a case, police said. Among the local community, foreboding was fast eroding hope, but Shannon’s family refused to be deterred. In a radio interview, reportedly after consulting a psychic, Karen Matthews spoke of her belief that someone she knew had snatched her daughter in order to get at her. "Police have said prepare for the worst, but we are not going to be doing that,” she said. “At the moment we know she's out there."

And she was. Just two days later, police were alerted by a neighbour in Lidgate Gardens, in the Batley Carr area of Dewsbury, to the sound of a child’s footsteps in a home where no children lived. Another resident reported hearing banging. Just after 12.30pm today, police battered down the door of Number 26 and stormed the upstairs flat. Moments later they emerged, one officer carrying Shannon in his arms. A man in handcuffs followed, was bundled swiftly into a police van and driven away.

The story of Shannon’s disappearance is, according to detectives, a “very complicated” one. The 39-year-old arrested today is believed to be a relative, though no names have yet been released. His tale may shock and disturb another day, but for now it cannot puncture the joy and relief which has swept across a community paralysed for so long.

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