Lamplugh police to end meadow body search

Officers had used a mechanical digger to create several shallow trenches in a field near Pershore in Worcestershire.

But, by late yesterday, forensic examination and tests with ground-penetrating radar devices had produced no evidence that the area may conceal a shallow grave.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said detectives expected to end the search last night.

Experts began a painstaking search after a witness said he remembered seeing a mound of earth there when he was a teenager 24 years ago.

Police brought in academic specialists to advise them on decomposition and other microscopic evidence that a body may be present.

The search was the latest to take place over the last decade in the area of the disused military barracks at Norton.

A former girlfriend of prime suspect and convicted killer John Cannan said he once boasted Miss Lamplugh was buried there.

Cannan was released from a hostel days before Miss Lamplugh disappeared and has been questioned several times.

Miss Lamplugh, 25, disappeared in July 1986.