SCHOOLGIRL Lucy McHugh was stabbed to death before being dumped in woodland, police revealed today.

Detectives appealed for help in finding the weapon, saying it could be a knife or scissors, and released images of the 13-year-old's distinctive black jacket.

The youngster's body was found two miles from her home on Thursday morning, around 24 hours after she was last seen leaving her home in Southampton.

Hours later cops arrested 24-year-old family friend Stephen Nicholson on suspicion of murder and sexual activity with a child.

He remained in custody yesterday but the deadline for either charging or releasing him was in the early hours of this morning.

The tattooist and care assistant worked alongside Lucy's careworker mum Stacey, 30, and had even been living with the family in recent months.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: "We can now reveal that Lucy died as the result of stab wounds. We are keen to hear from anyone who has found a sharp implement.

"We cannot say at this stage whether this is a knife, scissors or other bladed implement. Even if someone has put an item in a bin, we will try and recover it."

The murder suspect's dad last night vowed to disown his son if he's guilty. Paul Nicholson, 46, told The Sun: "My thoughts are with the family of the little girl now.

"If I had a message for them it would be that I feel sorry for them and I don't want anything to do with my son if he's done this."

Paul, who lives in Port Talbot, South Wales and works for a mental health charity, said he hardly saw Stephen as he grew up after a "messy divorce" from his mum Teresa, 49.

He added: "I'm more concerned about the poor girl."

Lucy's devastated mum issued a plea on Facebook for people to stop making threats against Stephen's family as tensions ran high.

As cops searched Stephen's mum's house on the same street, she wrote: "Please can I ask that people are not passing blame onto family members of the person that has been arrested.

"Making threats of violence to them will not bring my angel back." Detective Superintendent Paul Barton also called for calm as Stephen's Facebook page was bombarded with abuse.

He said: "We know how shocked the community is and understand that emotions are running high.

"However we ask people not to speculate on social media - it is unhelpful to the investigation and to Lucy’s family. Please allow us to do our job and find out what happened to Lucy."

Police released images of the type of clothes Lucy had been wearing, including her black jacket with white sleeves, which had the logo for the band Falling in Reverse on the front and RADKE 01 in red on the back She was also wearing a white vest top, camouflage leggings and black and white Jordan 23 trainers.

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Police also said that her hair was blonder than in the photo the was released and that she'd been wearing large, hooped earrings.

Det Supt Barton added: “We’re hoping the images and descriptions of the type of clothing she was last seen wearing will jog people’s memories.

“So that we can piece together what she did after leaving her house, we urge anyone who saw Lucy, had contact with her or knows of her movements on Wednesday to get in touch."