O’Callaghan body ‘moved after death’

Police find missing woman’s body and search continues for second, which they believe is of victim from case years ago Police investigating the murder of Sian O’Callaghan believe her body had been moved before it was recovered from an area near the village of Uffington, about 15 miles east of Swindon. A postmortem on the 22-year-old woman, who went missing after leaving a nightclub early last Saturday, was under way, Wiltshire police revealed at a press conference on Friday. A suspect being held on suspicion of kidnap and two murders had also led police to a location near the Gloucester village of Northleach in the Cotswolds, where they are now searching for a second body, said Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher. He has not been charged and police said that an application might have to be made to magistrates for his continued detention. Police have carried out searches at the house of a Swindon taxi driver named locally as 47-year-old Christopher Halliwell, as well as at Savernake forest in Wiltshire, where O’Callaghan’s phone is known to have been taken after she vanished. Fulcher, who was taken personally to the two areas under investigation by the suspect, said: “We believe Sian’s body was moved to the Uffington area by this individual.” The Northleach search had continued through the night. It was “a painstaking, slow process”. If there was another body, “we believe it relates to an incident some years ago and it is an adult,” said Fulcher. Wiltshire police only had one such missing-person case on its files, he added. The man in custody was arrested on suspicion of kidnap on Thursday after police stopped a green Toyota Avensis estate car. O’Callaghan disappeared after leaving the Suju nightclub in the Old Town area of Swindon at 2.52am on Saturday. She had been expected to walk the half mile to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape, 25, but did not arrive and was reported missing a few hours later. People have been leaving flowers, cards and candles at the entrance to the nightclub. Police have appealed to those using pubs and nightclubs locally “to do so wisely”. Crime James Meikle guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.