Man arrested over murder of body-in-woods graduate

A 22-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering an economics graduate whose body was found in woodland near her workplace.

A spokesman for Derbyshire Police said detectives investigating the death of Jia Ashton arrested the man at a flat in the Amber Valley area yesterday afternoon.

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Mrs Ashton, who lived in Somercotes, Derbyshire, and worked for chocolate-maker Thorntons in nearby Swanwick, disappeared while on her way home from work on March 10 and was found dead in nearby woods three days later, having suffered head and face injuries.

The 25-year-old had left the Thorntons site shortly after 5pm on Thursday March 10 and is known to have walked into Sleetmoor Woods, along a path known locally as the “yellow brick road”, which featured on her regular journey home.

A police investigation was launched after her husband, a primary school teacher, raised the alarm the following evening when she had not returned home.

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Mrs Ashton’s body was found in the woods at 4.30pm on Sunday March 13 and a £20,000 reward was subsequently offered by an anonymous benefactor for information to catch her killer.

During the inquiry police stressed they were in possession of forensic evidence allowing them to eliminate innocent people from the investigation.

In a statement issued by Derbyshire Constabulary shortly after Mrs Ashton was killed, 26-year-old Matthew Ashton, who had been ruled out as a suspect, spoke of his devastation and described her as his “pocket princess”.

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In the statement, he said: “At 25, she had already achieved more than most 60-year-olds and I feel that if you hadn’t met her by now, one day you would have.

“Those who had met her should consider themselves richer for it.”

Mr Ashton met Jia during their studies at the University of Warwick and the pair married in her native China in 2006.