Missing Louise: Friends’ f lat searched as body found
DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl were last night searching a flat where she was staying with friends before she vanished.
Louise Smith, 16, sometimes stayed with the married couple when she had trouble at home, other residents in the block said.
Sniffer dogs were seen entering the flat on Thursday morning, hours before a body was found in nearby woods. Investigators took ‘bag loads’ of items, including clothes, out of the first-floor property in Havant, Hampshire.
The couple who live there were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping the teenager last week before being bailed, locals said.
Their flat is minutes down the road from the teenager’s home and is on the same road where she was last seen on May 8, VE Day. A neighbour of the couple claimed that the wife put up a post on Facebook after the schoolgirl vanished, saying: ‘Louise has gone missing... she was supposed to be in my care, she went to the shops for her friends and now she’s missing.’
Police were guarding the flat yesterday as forensics investigators worked inside. One person who lives in the block said: ‘We had sniffer dogs yesterday. Over the past week, we’ve had vans arriving and taking clothing, carpets. Basically everything. There’s been a huge police presence and they’ve been bringing loads out.’
Another neighbour, an elderly woman, said: ‘‘The couple have always been very nice to me. They are very quiet and I don’t think they got out of the house much.’
It was claimed locally that Louise sometimes stayed with the couple after arguments at home.
While she has been missing over the past fortnight her mother Rebecca Cooper shared emotional pleas on social media.
She wrote last week: ‘Please come home, I have never felt so lost and lonely without you, I’ve always known where you are and who you are with till now, please please please come home... I love you.’
Detectives investigating the disappearance found a body in woodland at Havant Thicket on Thursday night. The woods and a nearby
‘So lost and lonely without you’
lake had been searched by police for several days. Miss Cooper, 39, was said to be devastated and was being comforted by family and friends at the home where she lives with partner Richard O’Shea, 32. Police have yet to confirm the identity of the body or reveal the cause of death.
But detectives said they were treating it as ‘suspicious’ and that Louise’s family were being supported by specialist officers.
Detective Chief Superintendent Scott Mackechnie said on Thursday: ‘ Officers located a body in an area of woodland in Havant Thicket.
‘We know that news of this discovery will be very upsetting for the community, so I want to reassure you we will be working around the clock to establish what has happened.
‘We will endeavour to provide you with further updates as soon as we can but, in the meantime, we’re asking the community not to speculate on the circumstances and instead provide all information to the police in the first instance, as this is crucial to helping our inquiries. Thank you to everyone in the community who has offered their support so far.’