THE parents of missing teenager Sam Collins may be asked to view CCTV footage from a supermarket in Plymouth to see if their daughter was a customer.

Police are examining CCTV footage and receipts from a Tesco store in the Devon town in a bid to discover if the 18-year-old was buying cigarettes there, Sam's worried parents revealed last night.

Sam's cash card was used to purchase items at the shop on two occasions within minutes on a date around November 16. She has been missing from her family home in Maesglas Road, Newport, since November 8.

Her parents, Catherine and Andrew Collins, believe she may have run away with a man she met in a mobile phone chatroom.

Mr Collins, 40, said: "It is highly unusual she has not contacted us by telephone as we are a close family, and any problems we air out as soon as they happen.

"We miss her and we love her. She isn't in any trouble. "We just want to know she is safe and well.

"Police have CCTV footage and receipts from the store, and we may be asked to view them.

"Apparently it was Lambert & Butler that were bought, which is the brand Sam smokes.

"At least we have some hope now as we think she may have used her cash card."

But he added that the recent death of another teenager near the English city had added to the family's fears.

He said: "Another 18-year-old girl was found dead near Plymouth recently, so we have been thinking all sorts of things."

The body of Alicia Eborne, 18, from Corntown, near Plymouth, was found in a shallow grave on Dartmoor on November 14 after she had been missing for ten days.

Plymouth bus driver Lee Holbrook, 39, has been charged with her murder. Mr Collins said the whole family is finding it difficult to cope with Sam's disappearance, especially Sam's two sisters, 21-year-old Tammy, and Sophie, five, and her brother, Andrew, 12.

We revealed yesterday how Sam had left a letter saying she had met a man from Plymouth on a chatline, had fallen in love and wanted to start a new life.

But her parents have described her as "easily led", and are worried that she has not contacted them about her siblings and baby niece, Kacie, born on bonfire night.

Mr Collins said Sam had given no clues through her behaviour to the family that she was about to leave.

Mr Collins said the Missing Persons Bureau and the Salvation Army have been contacted about her disappearance.

Anyone with information about Sam's whereabouts is asked to contact Newport police on 01633 244999.