Police scour North Pennines farmland for missing woman

Police have begun searching remote farmland in the North Pennines, for the body of a woman who was last seen eight years ago. Janet Brown went missing before she could claim her inheritance. Officers are are now treating her disappearance as a murder investigation.

Ms Brown lived near her parents at Lowgate outside Hexham. She was a property developer and television drama 'extra'. She was last seen in June 2005 on the set of the ITV series Distant Shores which was filmed at Craster on the Northumberland coast.

Ms Brown enjoyed foreign travel so friends say they were not concerned when she first went missing.

Police were first alerted to the case in 2009 over activity surrounding her late parents' bank accounts, which Ms Brown stood to inherit. Four people were arrested in connection with that investigation and then released on bail.

In December 2012 one of the four; a 59 year old Northumberland man, was arrested on suspicion of murder and bailed pending further inquiries.

Now, a team of around twenty police officers and experts is scouring land near Sparty Lea south of Allendale.

Police say the search could take in 40 acres and will last around 3 weeks.

Watch Helen Ford's report here: