two bodies found in Canterbury pond - The Guardian

Police have arrested a man on suspicion of murder after the discovery of the bodies of a teenage boy and a man in a pond in Canterbury.

The 54-year-old suspect, who has not been named, is in custody, Kent police said.

The body of a 17-year-old, named by police as Hugo Wenn, who went missing last week, was discovered in Reed Pond, which is adjacent to a primary school near a residential area north-west of the city centre, at about midday on Monday. Emergency services searching the area discovered a second body, believed to be that of a man in his 20s, in the pond at about 9.40pm.

Wenn, a former student at Simon Langton grammar school for boys in Canterbury, was reported missing after failing to meet friends as planned on Friday evening at a pub in Canterbury. The teenager's friends had appealed on Twitter and Facebook for information about his whereabouts.

The headteacher of Wenn's former school, Michael Liddicoat, said there was "a sense of complete shock at this loss".

He said: "In many ways, Hugo was a gentle giant who was about 6ft 3in so you couldn't miss him around school. He was fantastic with the younger students and he will be missed."

The second body is believed to be that of a man in his 20s called Daniel Lloyd, the Press Association reported. Police are reportedly working on the belief that he and Wenn knew each other.

The causes of both deaths remain unknown pending postmortems.

A Kent police spokeswoman said: "Police search and forensic teams remain at the scene at this time, and officers from the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate major crime team have set up an incident room to investigate these deaths.

"The deaths are currently being treated as unexplained pending postmortems which are due to take place in the next 24 hours. A 54-year-old man from Canterbury has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in police custody."

Chief inspector Steve Barlow, the district commander for Canterbury, said: "We are appealing for anyone who may have been in the immediate vicinity of Reed pond in Canterbury between 5pm on Friday January 27 and 11am on Monday January 30 to get in contact with us if they witnessed anything unusual or if they have any information which they think could help this investigation."

While Reed Pond is on Ministry of Defence land, behind Howe Barracks, the MoD said there was not believed to be any connection with the armed forces.

An army spokesman said: "This piece of land is owned by Defence Estates and, while occasionally used by the army, is open to the public. It is not thought that the deaths were in any way connected with HM armed forces.

"A number of soldiers were involved in helping with the ground search prior to the discovery of the bodies but the matter is now entirely in the hands of the police."