At 3:07 pm on 21 March 2002, Milly Dowler left Heathside School in Weybridge, Surrey, and walked to Weybridge railway station with a friend.

The girls disembarked at Walton-on-Thames railway station, one stop before Dowler's usual stop of Hersham, and went to eat at the station café. After Milly telephoned her father at 3:47 pm to say she would be home in half an hour, the girls left the café at 4:05, with Dowler walking home alone.

She was last seen three minutes later walking along Station Avenue, by a friend of her sister, who was waiting at a bus stop. A closed-circuit television camera located further along the road showed no images of Dowler.

A red Daewoo Nexia, which belonged to Levi Bellfield's girlfriend Emma Mills, was photographed driving past by the same camera at 4:32 pm.