More tests due on body of woman - Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Further forensic tests are expected to take place on the body of a woman who was found in a river alongside her partner after being apparently strangled.

Norfolk Police said detectives were treating her death as suspicious in the wake of a post-mortem examination that found she died before entering the River Bure.

Officers had launched a search after finding the woman's daughter, a 13-year-old girl, alone but unharmed on a cruiser on the Norfolk Broads on Saturday.

Neither body has been formally identified but police said the man's death was not being treated as suspicious.

Post-mortem tests on the pair, who were both in their 40s and from the Surrey area, found the woman probably died as the result of strangulation. The man died as the result of drowning, police said.

Detective Superintendent Jes Fry, of the joint Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigation Team, said: "Our concerns remain for the welfare of the 13-year-old girl. We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident."

Specialist river police found the 38ft Admiral hire craft on a stretch of the river between Wroxham Broad and Salhouse Broad after being alerted by a boat rental company reporting that one of its vessels had not been returned on time.

Divers were deployed to search the river when officers found the woman's 13-year-old daughter alone but unharmed on the cruiser. The bodies were found within metres of where the boat was moored. It is understood the trio spent a week holidaying on the Broads and were due to return home on Saturday.

The mother, her boyfriend and the girl had all reportedly been seen having a barbecue on deck on Friday evening. Some river users said the boat remained around the same isolated inlet throughout the week. The girl is being cared for by family.

Several items including a computer and bed sheets were removed from one of the cruiser's bedrooms by forensic specialists after it was moved to a boatyard in nearby Horning. It is not clear if these items are being treated as evidence.

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