Missing Libby: Police question Polish bacon factory worker
THE desperate week-long search for missing student Libby Squire continued last night as police questioned a Polish father-of-two over her suspected abduction.
The investigation took a dramatic turn when police swooped on a rented terrace house in Hull where Pawel Relowicz, 24, lives with his wife and two young children.
The property is half a mile from the bench where Miss Squire was sitting in a drunken state shortly before midnight last Thursday.
Despite the significant development, however, detectives have still not found the 21-year-old undergraduate.
Last night police said the 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of abduction remained in custody.
During the day as the suspect was being questioned, the police search focused on playing fields and a large pond a short walk from Miss Squire’s student home. They have also searched undergrowth around a stretch of the River Hull.
Her parents Lisa and Russell Squire have been waiting anxiously for news, not knowing if their daughter is dead or alive. Police moved on to Raglan Street at 9pm on Wednesday and removed a Vauxhall Astra car, believed to belong to Mr Relowicz, for forensic examination.
Crime scene investigators went into the property yesterday in search of evidence.
Mr Relowicz and his wife Jagoda both work at a bacon factory about 35 miles away in Malton, North Yorkshire. They have a twoyear-old son and a three-monthold baby and were said by friends to be a happy family. Last night Mr Relowicz’s sister insisted he had nothing to do with her disappearance. Paulina Szymanska told the Telegraph: ‘I don’t believe my brother could do it. We were raised to be good people.’ Hairdresser Iwona Reczulska, who cuts the couple’s hair, described them as ‘a normal hardworking family’. She said Mr Relowicz worked five days a week and was ‘not one to go out drinking’, preferring to be with his family. ‘It is very surprising to me to hear that they have been mentioned over something like this,’ she said Mr Relowicz’s landlord, who asked not to be named, said: ‘He is very much a family man from what I know. The house is always clean and tidy and the rent is always paid on time.’ On his Facebook page Mr Relowicz lists a martial arts club in Hull among his sporting interests. He is also keen on computer games and football.
He is believed to have moved to Britain from his native Poland in 2014 and met his Polish wife at the Yorkshire pork processing plant.
Police refused to reveal what led them to his door and stressed their focus was to find Miss Squire.
Detective Superintendent Matt Hutchinson of Humberside Police said: ‘We are still treating Libby’s disappearance as a missing person’s inquiry. We are keeping an open mind as to her whereabouts.’
Miss Squire, a second-year philosophy student at Hull University, was put into a taxi by friends last Thursday night after being refused entry to a nightclub.
She was dropped off outside her home in Wellesley Avenue at 11.29pm and was caught on CCTV sitting on a bench about 300 yards away by the main Beverley Road.
Police said a taxi driver and another motorist who ‘stopped to help Libby on the night’ have been eliminated from the investigation. Miss Squire was last spotted in the area at 12.09am but has not been seen since.