Police looking for a missing teenager have found human remains in a house less than half a mile from where she was last seen.
Leah Croucher was 19 when she disappeared on 15 February 2019 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, sparking a massive three-and-a-half year search.
Thames Valley Police said her rucksack and other personal possessions had also been found at the property after a tip-off from a member of the public on Monday.
Image: Pic: Thames Valley Police
Image: A poster offering a £5,000 reward is close to the house being searched
Officers are still at the home on Loxbeare Drive in the Furzton area of Milton Keynes.
Ms Croucher vanished while walking to work – the last sighting of her was at around 8.15am on Buzzacott Lane.
The two locations are only a two-minute drive apart.
Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Hunter described the search as a “very difficult scene” and said a murder investigation had begun.
“The forensic examination continues and will do for some time. It is likely to take some time to formally identify the deceased,” added a police statement.
Ms Croucher’s family are being kept updated and supported.
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Hundreds of officers have worked on the search since 2019, scouring 1,200 hours of CCTV and carrying out 4,000 house-to-house inquiries.
Image: A forensic tent was put up outside the Loxbeare Drive property
Specialist search teams, police on horseback, dogs, the marine unit and the National Police Air Service have all been involved.
Mr Hunter said the tip-off was the first time they had been alerted to the Loxbeare Drive property.
“Our thoughts remain with Leah’s family and friends, and we will continue to offer them all the support that they need,” he said.
Image: She was last seen on 15 February 2019. Pic: Thames Valley Police
Ms Croucher was described as “very quiet” and “not really an outgoing type of person”, who preferred reading fantasy fiction or watching DVDs in her room than socialising.
Image: An undated photo of Leah Croucher (right) with her sister Jade
She competed internationally in taekwondo, but her father said she was “not a fighter”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to recognise Palestine as a state has been attacked as “appeasement towards jihadist terrorists” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prime minister said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel takes “substantive steps” to end the situation in Gaza, Israel agrees to a ceasefire, commits to a long-term sustainable peace, allows the UN to restart aid supplies and does not annexe the West Bank.
About 250 MPs from all parties – half of them Labour – had signed a letter last week calling for Sir Keir to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
Sir Keir said that by giving Israel a deadline of 9 September UN meeting, he hoped this would play a part “in changing the conditions on the ground, and making sure aid gets into making sure that there is hope of a two-state solution for the future”.
But Mr Netanyahu condemned the plan, saying Sir Keir “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims”.
“A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow,” he wrote on X.
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“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
The Israelis also accused Sir Keir of pandering to his MPs and France, after Emmanuel Macron committed to recognising a Palestinian state last week, and harming efforts to release Israeli hostages.
Image: Benjamin Netanyahu was effusive in his condemnation
Lib Dems and Greens: ‘Bargaining chip’
Sir Keir also faced accusations of using Palestinian state recognition as a “bargaining chip” by both the Lib Dems and the Green Party.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said a Palestinian state should have been recognised “months ago” and “far greater action” is needed to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Image: Jordanian military personnel prepare planes to deliver airdrops in Gaza on Monday
Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Ellie Chowns, who wants immediate state recognition, said it was a “cynical political gesture”.
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s former SNP first minister, who revealed a family member was killed in Gaza days ago, told Sky News statehood “shouldn’t be dependent” upon the conditions Sir Keir has set for Israel, but is the “inalienable right” of the Palestinian people.
The British Palestinian Committee, representing Palestinian interests in the UK, described conditions as “absurd and performative”.
UK Jewish groups seek clarity
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s largest Jewish organisation, said it was “seeking urgent clarification” that the UK will not recognise Palestine as a state if Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity, or if Hamas keeps rejecting a ceasefire deal.
The Labour Friends of Israel group said it has “shared goals” with the government but state recognition “will be a merely symbolic act unless the UK uses its influence to establish the principles of a meaningful pathway to a Palestinian state”.
Sarah Champion, Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, who started the MP letter calling for state recognition, said she was “delighted and relieved”.
However, she added: “I’m troubled our recognition appears conditional on Israel’s actions.”
When Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the plan at a UN meeting, he received applause.
Not many other Labour MPs commented.
Tories accuse Starmer of appeasing MPs
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of being more focused on a “political problem for the Labour Party” than other issues facing the UK.
“Recognising a Palestinian state won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza,” she posted on X.
“This is political posturing at its very worst.”
Tory shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said the announcement was “to appease his backbenchers” as “he knows that promises to recognise Palestine will not secure lasting peace”.
Image: Aid trucks were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday. Pic: Reuters
Trump did not discuss statehood with Starmer
Donald Trump said he and Sir Keir “never did discuss” the PM’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state during their meetings in Scotland the day before.
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Trump responds to Sky question on Israel
However, Tammy Bruce, spokeswoman for the US state department, said Sir Keir’s plan is a “slap in the face for the victims of October 7”, which “rewards Hamas”, the Telegraph reported.
At St Marie’s Catholic Church in Southport, small photos of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar stood on the altar. Candles burned next to them.
During lunchtime mass, Father John Heneghan, who gave Alice her first communion and then conducted her funeral, spoke quietly of the “three little angels” lost a year ago.
Image: (L-R) Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King.
Pic: Merseyside Police
A town and a community, in small and quiet ways, remembered a horror that still haunts them.
St Marie’s was one of the locations chosen for the people of Southport to come and reflect, pray or light a candle in memory of the awful events of 29 July last year.
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Throughout the day, a handful of people have paused for a moment at community centres, libraries and churches.
The town had opted for very little outward show of commemoration.
After discussions, including with the families of the victims, they asked for people to instead donate to local causes, including the charities set up by those families themselves – Elsie’s Story, Bebe’s Hive and Alice’s WonderDance.
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They requested no flowers at the scene of the attack or the schools the girls attended.
“Let us continue to honour the lives of Alice, Bebe and Elsie,” the leader and chair of Sefton Council said in a letter to the community, “not only through remembrance but by holding onto the values they embodied – joy, creativity, kindness, and love.”
Image: Flowers left at Town Hall Gardens in Southport, near where three children were fatally stabbed a year ago. Pic: PA
At 3pm, people stopped to observe the three-minute silence in the town centre.
A few wiped away tears before spontaneous applause broke out.
In Southport’s Town Hall Gardens, which was the focal point of the public mourning a year ago, people again came to place flowers, toys and cards in memory of the victims.
Stones bearing messages of support to the families were also placed there.
“God bless to you three little angels,” read one card.
Resident doctors are not ruling out further strike action as their current walkout comes to an end, with some demands still unmet.
The latest strike began on Friday amid an ongoing row over pay and is expected to last until 7am on Wednesday.
Hospital leaders have urged the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government to end the strikes, which caused widespread disruptions throughout the NHS in England.
The BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee (RDC) says it is ready for further talks with the government but has yet to be contacted by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Dozens of resident doctors, previously called junior doctors, took part in a picket line on Tuesday at King George Hospital in Ilford, a facility serving the constituents of the health secretary.
Image: Health Secretary Wes Streeting visits the NHS National Operations Centre in London to see the response to the industrial action. Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
“Unfortunately, we haven’t heard from him yet. That doesn’t mean that he’s not going to call us tomorrow – our door is always open,” said Dr Melissa Ryan, who co-chairs the committee alongside Dr Ross Nieuwoudt.
Dr Nieuwoudt said: “There does not need to be a single other day of industrial action at all.
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“All Wes Streeting needs to do is come to us now and talk to us now, because that’s what doctors want and that’s what patients need.”
The union has also launched a related dispute with the government over limited training spots, as this year, over 30,000 resident doctors competed for only 10,000 specialty places.
A recent poll of 4,400 doctors found that 52% finishing their second training year lack confirmed employment for August.
Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at NHS Confederation, said: “Resident doctors have recently had a very substantial increase in their pay and the government has been pretty clear that at the moment, there isn’t more money to be negotiated.”
Dr McCay said the government “is keen” to discuss non-pay issues, such as workforce conditions.
Image: NHS resident doctors outside St Thomas’ Hospital. Pic: PA.
“I think that the hope of all healthcare leaders is that the BMA will get around the table with the government and figure out a solution to this, because what absolutely nobody wants to see is any further cases of industrial action after this one.”
Streeting has said the union can’t “hold the country to ransom” following a 28.9% pay increase over the past three years, the highest in the public sector.
The BMA has said pay for resident doctors has declined by a fifth since 2008, once inflation is taken into account, despite this uplift.
Meanwhile, health workers represented by the GMB and Unite unions have also turned down a government offer, raising the likelihood of additional industrial action within the NHS.
Nurses are also expected to turn down the pay deal later this week.
The Royal College of Nursing, which represents hundreds of thousands of nurses across the NHS in England, is balloting its members on the 3.6% pay award offered for 2025/26 in England.
A recent YouGov poll found that public opinion in Britain is divided over nurses striking for better pay. Among 4,300 adults surveyed, 19% “strongly support” nurse strikes, while 28% offer some support. In contrast, 23% “strongly oppose” the strikes, and 20% “somewhat oppose” them.