Inside cafe cellar where police dug for suspected Fred West victim
Pictures from inside the cellar of a Gloucester cafe at the centre of a search for a suspected Fred West victim have been released.
Images show the scale of the dig in the basement of the Clean Plate Cafe in Southgate Street, which was sealed off by police earlier this month.
It followed the discovery by an ITV documentary film crew of new evidence which suggested a body may have been buried there.
Detectives believed it may be linked to the disappearance of Mary Bastholm, who used to work at the cafe before she went missing in 1968.
But Gloucestershire Police said no human remains were found following the search, which concluded this week.
Crime scene co-ordinator Martin Cuffe said the dig centred on a concrete square in the corner of the cellar.
"It had no obvious purpose to it, it was a modern construction material and it was out of the way,” he explained.
The search was triggered after an image of “blue material” was captured using ground-penetrating radar, by drilling holes into the ground and lowering an endoscope camera below.
But Mr Cuffe said officers found no evidence of any blue material.
"When you look at the cross-section [of the pipe], you've got this kind of grey blue-y kind of surface in the middle,” he said.
"What we found is that when you look at it under quite directed bright light source that takes on quite a bluey appearance.
"Especially because you've got the areas where it feathers in to the edges, it's possible that appearance of the fabric was made up by this concrete-y material with a cheap endoscope camera has given that appearance of blue fabric."
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