Mystery of vanished Libby: Body pulled out of estuary
Student, 21, disappeared near river 7 weeks ago
POLICE investigating the disappearance of university student Libby Squire are trying to identify a body found in the Humber Estuary yesterday.
There has been no sign of the 21-year-old since she vanished after a night out in Hull seven weeks ago.
One theory being considered by detectives is that her body may have been washed into the estuary after she fell into the River Hull.
The body, which was recovered by the RNLI lifeboat Fraser Flyer, is thought to be so badly decomposed that scientific tests will be needed to identify it.
Police have not even been able to establish its gender.
A Humberside Police spokesman said the body was found close to Grimsby Docks, adding: ‘At this stage, it is too early for any identification or confirmation of gender to be made.
‘ Further information will be released as soon as we are in a position to do so.’
In January two men jumped from the Humber Bridge within minutes of each other in apparent suicide leaps. Their bodies have not been recovered.
Miss Squire was last seen on CCTV at 11.45pm on January 31, sitting on a park bench 300 yards from her student home in Hull.
She was said to be drunk and had been refused entry into a nightclub that evening. She returned home by taxi and was dropped off outside her house.
However, instead of going inside she walked up to the main road to the bench. Police said she stayed in the area until 12.09am and has not been seen since.
Officers believe she may have ‘come to harm’.
Polish butcher Pawel Relowicz, 24, was suspecting of abducting her, and was charged with a number of unrelated offences.
Police said last night he was still being investigated.
Much of the intensive police search operation for Miss Squire has focused on playing fields, a large pond and the river close to her student digs.
Officers from a specialist marine search unit spent hours scouring the semi-frozen pond in the days after she vanished, and carried out searches of the River Hull.
Meanwhile, Miss Squire’s parents, Lisa and Russell, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, have waited anxiously for news. Mrs Squire has spoken of the ‘utter heartbreak and despair’ caused by not knowing what had happened. She said: ‘As a family we are incomplete.’
Last month, Detective Superintendent Martin Smalley said police had followed up hundreds of leads, adding: ‘We must increasingly consider she has come to harm.’