Human bones have been recovered at a property where some of Leah Croucher’s belongings were discovered, according to police looking into her murder. She was 19 years old.
Her backpack and other personal belongings were earlier discovered by Thames Valley Police at a residence on Loxbeare Drive in Furzton, Milton Keynes.
The teenager was last seen on CCTV in the city on 15 February 2019.
Formal identification has not taken place but Ms Croucher’s family were being kept informed, the force said.
“It is likely to take some time to formally identify the deceased,” a spokesperson said.
Officers have been at the property since 18:30 BST on Monday, after they received information from a member of the public, and said on Wednesday that a murder investigation had begun after her possessions were found.
Later, human remains were discovered during “forensic examinations”.
Police described the scene as “challenging and complex” and said the “forensic examination continues and will do for some time”.
Since Ms Croucher’s disappearance three years ago, police have carried out more than 4,000 house-to-house inquiries and reviewed 1,200 hours of CCTV footage.
Miss Croucher was described by loved ones as “very quiet” and “not really an outgoing type of person”, preferring to read fantasy fiction or watch DVDs in her room to nights out at the pub.
She had competed internationally in taekwondo but her father said she was “not a fighter”.
Her family was struck by further tragedy when her half-brother, Haydon Croucher, took his own life, aged 24, in November 2019.
His mother said he had found the disappearance of his sister “very difficult“.
Leah Croucher: A timeline
- 14 February 2019: Leah Croucher is last seen by her parents at the family home in Quantock Crescent, Milton Keynes at 22:00 GMT
- 15 February 2019: CCTV footage showed her walking down Buzzacott Lane in Furzton at 08:16. She was thought to be going to work, but she never arrived
- April 2019: Thames Valley Police said three people had reported possible sightings of Leah near Furzton Lake between 09:30 and 11:15, on the day she went missing
- October 2019: A two-week search by Thames Valley Police of a lake and surrounding area at the Blue Lagoon nature reserve in Bletchley finds nothing
- February 2021: On the second anniversary of her disappearance, police said there had been “no significant lead” and the case was “bewildering and frustrating”
- October 2022: Police open a murder investigation after unidentified human remains and a rucksack and personal possessions belonging to Leah are found at a property on Loxbeare Drive in Furzton, Milton Keynes