Leah Croucher: What we know so far as dead murder suspect named by Thames Valley Police
Three-and-a-half years after Leah Croucher went missing, police searching for the Milton Keynes teenager made a major breakthrough this week.
The 19-year-old went missing on 15 February 2019 and police have since mounted a three-year campaign to find her.
Little was known about what happened to Leah that morning, until this week when a police search led to the discovery of several key details.
Here is everything we know so far about Leah Croucher's disappearance, the murder investigation and the man police suspect of her murder:
Leah's disappearance
Leah left her home on Quantock Crescent, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, at around 8am on 15 February 2019 to begin her two-mile walk to work - but she never showed up.
She was last seen on CCTV on Buzzacott Lane just after 8am and was reported missing by her parents, John and Claire Croucher, when she failed to return home from work later that evening.
Two months later, Thames Valley Police revealed that Leah may have been seen "angry, upset and crying" by a lake on the day she disappeared, but they found nothing belonging to the 19-year-old after two weeks of searching the nearby Blue Lagoon nature reserve lake in Bletchley.
Seven months after his sister's disappearance, Leah's brother Haydon died, with a coroner later concluding he took his own life. The ordeal of dealing with his sister's disappearance was one of the reasons cited at his inquest earlier this year.
Despite renewed appeals, an increase in the reward to help find Leah, and a new image believed to be of the teenager when she went missing, Thames Valley Police did not make a breakthrough until three-and-a-half years after Leah's disappearance.
This week's discovery
On Monday, Thames Valley Police received a call from a member of the public, alerting them to an address in Loxbeare Drive in Furzton, Milton Keynes, less than half a mile from where Leah was last seen.
They began to search the property and on Wednesday revealed that unidentified human remains had been found in the loft of the house, alongside items belonging to Leah Croucher.
These items included a rucksack and personal possessions.
Detectives subsequently launched a murder investigation, as they waited for formal identification of the remains.
On Thursday evening, Leah's family laid flowers outside the house, reading: “Our darkest fears have come true, we only need to be apart a little longer. 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 xx xx”.
A post-mortem was due to take place on Friday to identify the human remains, but police said further investigations were needed to establish how long the body may have been in the house.
Murder suspect named
At a press conference on Friday, Thames Valley Police named dead sex offender Neil Maxwell as the man they suspected of Leah Croucher's murder.
Police said Maxwell took his own life on 20 April 2019, two months after Leah disappeared.
Thames Valley Police's head of crime, Det Ch Supt Ian Hunter said Maxwell was employed by the overseas owner of the property to do maintenance at the house in Milton Keynes where human remains were found.
He had keys to the property from November 2018 and was the only person to have them at the time of Leah's disappearance, with the owner abroad when she went missing.
No other suspects are being investigated by police, said DCI Hunter.
"While Maxwell has been nominated as a suspect, this does not mean he is guilty of any offence", he said.
"We will keep an open mind, and our detailed investigation will seek to gather sufficient evidence to establish the truth. This may or may not implicate or exonerate Maxwell or any other persons from the investigation."
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