Leah mum’s agony as hearse removes body
THE mother of murdered Leah Croucher broke down in tears last night as she watched a body being removed from a house over three years after she went missing.
Her family said their ‘darkest fears had come true’ after human remains – feared to be Leah – were found on Monday in a house less than half a mile from where the 19-year-old disappeared.
Claire Croucher could be heard sobbing behind a screen as police carried the remains to a waiting undertakers’ car.
Mrs Croucher and her husband John had arrived unannounced to see the house where the remains are understood to have been since Leah’s disappearance in February 2019.
The family said their ‘hopes and dreams’ of her being found safe had been ‘stolen’ yesterday as they vowed to fight for justice. Leah had not been seen since February 15, 2019, when she vanished on her way to work.
Police began searching the house in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on Monday evening following a tip-off from a member of the public. They discovered some of Leah’s belongings, including a rucksack, along with human remains at the house, which is less than half a mile from where the admin assistant was last seen on CCTV. Police said forensic examinations at the house could take weeks. A post-mortem examination is due to take place today, but it may ‘take some time’, Thames Valley Police warned. It said Monday was the first time officers had been alerted to the property, but it had been ‘visited as part of our house-to-house inquiries as part of the investigation’.
‘There was no response at the property and as such leaflets would have been dropped through the letterbox,’ the force said.
Yesterday, Leah’s distraught grandparents promised to ‘never stop seeking answers’.
An undertaker carried flowers as he took Leah’s parents to a makeshift memorial by the house.
A note with them read: ‘To our darling Leah. Our darkest fears have come true, we only need to be apart a little longer now.
‘We have so missed you for so long already. The future looks so bleak now. We know we will never see your smile or hear your laughter again. We will cherish your memories forever. We love you, Mum and dad.’