Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher, 19, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, 14 Feb 2019

[astheworldfallsdown]

RSBM

I am assuming this description of clothing etc has been taken from CCTV on 15 Feb. since there is no confirmation from her parents of seeing her that particular morning?

Is it just Leah lives at home, do her siblings live elsewhere? Not sleuthing them or anything, just wondering if that's why no one else saw her leave the house, her dad said in interview both him and her mum had already left for work.

 

[Mayfly]

I have been trying to work out why this case appears to be so low-profile. One factor is the lack of progress in the updates, which leads me to think there hasn't been much. Another is the way her last sighting at home was phrased: "She was seen at her home at 10 pm" is factual but I can't help thinking that if "her parents both left for work before she was up" had been added, it may have made things clearer. As it was, we weren't even sure if she had stayed elsewhere the night before.

The way information is presented often has an effect on how people respond and the MSM don't seem to be pushing for more information. There have been no quotes from neighbours, colleagues or friends to give the story a bit more depth.

I have quoted this statement before:

Police: “Leah’s usual route to work would be via Buzzacott Lane and then onto Faraday Drive using the redways to travel north towards Kelvin Drive in Knowlhill. We know that this is the route that Leah took on both Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th February, however extensive CCTV work has shown that she did not arrive in Faraday Drive on the morning she went missing - Friday 15th February."

This indicates a small and defined area where she may have come to harm. I live in a village, but between 8 and 9 am there are lots of people about, so I am astonished that no-one saw or heard anything.

 

[BrianJohnson]

There is proof, Leah was seen on cctv that morning:

https://www-standard-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/leah-croucher-missing-desperate-appeal-for-information-two-weeks-after-teenager-went-missing-a4080726.html?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&amp&usqp=mq331AQCCAE=#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/leah-croucher-missing-desperate-appeal-for-information-two-weeks-after-teenager-went-missing-a4080726.html

I thought I read on here that the cctv date was wrong and it may have been from the 14th but timestamped the 15th, maybe I am wrong though.

 

[Plod]

I thought I read on here that the cctv date was wrong and it may have been from the 14th but timestamped the 15th, maybe I am wrong though.

No I think we were speculating it might have been.

 

[Oraclle]

*SNIP*

Are they purely waiting for a body to be found? There doesn’t seem to be any urgency locally anymore

*SNIP*

So many questions but I do wonder why there is such a lack of reporting on this, I think you’d be hard pressed to find as many people who knew about Libby Squire out of area

I mean, what would you suggest be done at this point? She's disappeared without a trace.

I think the reason Libby Squire is such a national news story is that:
a) It's all very lurid; potential murder and rape, screams in the night, etc. It's something the media can sell.
b) There is plenty of CCTV, potential clues, witnesses and progress with an arrest. There's been new stuff to talk about.

Compare that to Leah: One solid CCTV image from the day, no witnesses, no clues, no suspects. Nothing to write about.

 

[bringmeacupoft]

I mean, what would you suggest be done at this point? She's disappeared without a trace.

I think the reason Libby Squire is such a national news story is that:
a) It's all very lurid; potential murder and rape, screams in the night, etc. It's something the media can sell.
b) There is plenty of CCTV, potential clues, witnesses and progress with an arrest. There's been new stuff to talk about.

Compare that to Leah: One solid CCTV image from the day, no witnesses, no clues, no suspects. Nothing to write about.

I was purely ‘thinking out loud’ if I had suggestions of what should be done I wouldn’t really be asking questions. Adding a perspective of how devastating and frustrating it must be for the people left behind who probably would love it to be national if it meant 1 key bit of information came to light......

 

[Miss_French]

I thought I read on here that the cctv date was wrong and it may have been from the 14th but timestamped the 15th, maybe I am wrong though.

The pic of Leah in that article that is credited to Thames Valley Police is from the 15th. That specific date was given when the police released the image.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

I have joined websleuths for this case and Libby.

Leah’s concerns me. Personally, I think a proper crime watch reconstruction should be done and a half hour programme on a main TV channel evening slot.

Another sleuther commented about some recent attacks in MK by silver mountain bike guy and I do wonder if he is anything to do with this.

I also wonder if someone with a grudge against her father, for example, has targeted Leah. This is just pure speculation on my part as I am not from the area and have no knowledge of the family. I am just thinking aloud being interested in martial arts myself, I could imagine a situation where Dad was proud that his daughter could ‘take care of herself’ and someone that he had unwittingly upset could target her for that reason, although I can’t really imagine in that situation that she wouldn’t have reappeared shaken up by now.

 

[goofybauble]

Large professionally printed banners have appeared on the bridges crossing the major route through MK (the A5) with the reward prominently featured. Noticed them on 2 bridges (and both sides of each bridge) this morning. The A5 runs past Teardrop Lakes where there were two unconfirmed sightings of Leah on the morning of the 14th.

 

[goofybauble]

Surely the CCTV timestamp could be easily worked out through police finding anyone else on the CCTV from that day and checking clothing etc. to be sure which day they were looking at. Presumably the time being out would also remain constant and so would be out from the minute they took the recording and therefore easy to work out which day they were seeing Leah.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Large professionally printed banners have appeared on the bridges crossing the major route through MK (the A5) with the reward prominently featured. Noticed them on 2 bridges (and both sides of each bridge) this morning. The A5 runs past Teardrop Lakes where there were two unconfirmed sightings of Leah on the morning of the 14th.

Were the two unconfirmed sightings the 14th or the 15th?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Were the two unconfirmed sightings the 14th or the 15th?

15th, around 8:45am

 

[goofybauble]

Were the two unconfirmed sightings the 14th or the 15th?

The 15th, sorry I wrote the wrong date. There is a lay-by on the A5 that is right next to the lakes too.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

The 15th, sorry I wrote the wrong date. There is a lay-by on the A5 that is right next to the lakes too.

Are there any cctv or traffic cams around there?

 

[BrianJohnson]

<modsnip - quoted a deleted post and discussed said post>

Sadly I think she is dead and that she either had a pre arranged rendezvous on the way to work with someone she knows well (would explain the different route she took to previous days) and it went badly wrong or she accepted a lift in good faith from someone she knows

I still feel the key to all this lies in the martial arts club

 

[goofybauble]

I don’t believe that there was a disapproved of boyfriend tbh, someone be it a family member, a work colleague, someone from her martial arts class etc would know who he is and would tell police who would check him out

Yes I agree with this, I guess I was more wondering if she'd planned to run off and someone she'd trusted to help her (not necessarily the boyfriend himself) had then abducted her. Which would explain the prolonged absence with no contact and no accessing of her bank account

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

'It's a living hell': Parents anguish as search for missing teen continues

We’re getting more and more worried by the day, because we've been trying to think positive that she's just run away.

But the fact that she hasn't used her bank cards or her phone or logged onto Facebook, it just makes it becomes more and more unbelievable each day because she's a typical teenager in that respect, she lives on her phone.

You might be that one person that has that bit of information that you think is insignificant. We just need one person to come forward with that little clue because at the moment we’ve got nothing.

– CLAIRE CROUCHER, LEAHS MUM

 

[Oraclle]

*SNIP*
...pre arranged rendezvous on the way to work with someone she knows well (would explain the different route she took to previous days) and it went badly wrong...
*SNIP*

Wait I must've missed something - where are you getting the different route bit from?

I understood she was a creature of habit and the reason the Police released the Faraday drive CCTV was an because it indicated that she went missing between Buzzacott and there.

 

[cherrytree9]

It sounds like she had a typical route but she'd sometimes go a slightly different way.

Reward to find missing teenager – Milton Keynes
“Enquiries show that Leah is known to take a number of different routes to work through Furzton. She has been known to walk via Shenley Lodge and Faraday Drive and we know she took that route on 13 and 14 February. However, on 15 February Leah does not appear on CCTV cameras in Faraday Drive.

“We know that Leah takes the route around Furzton Lake, more often to the Bilbrook Lane side on the west side of the lake, but also occasionally to the eastern side of the lake."

 

[Cardgame]

What seems so strange is that she seems to have vanished within such a defined area. You could understand if they had tracked her on CCTV for a while and then lost her somewhere remote. But she went missing at a busy time, in an area said to be busy. There is CCTV which captures her in previous days on her normal route(s), suggesting that LE even know the specific points (with certain variables) between which she may have disappeared on the Friday.

Without evidence that she has left that area, I would just be searching that area and houses in that area. I'd probably be watching that area covertly to see if anyone is acting strangely, in case she is being held. This could be partly what the reward hopes to achieve, perhaps a neighbour will sit up and take notice, phone in some odd behaviour that otherwise they might think nothing of.

I would also be running plates of vehicles caught on CCTV going in and out of the area between the relevant times, and run those plates against databases of known offenders, and people known to Leah. I hope this would include any vehicles that anyone known to Leah would have had access to during that time, not just vehicles they own but also vehicles in their temporary possession for work or other purposes.

What else? Feels like there must be so much they are doing that they aren't sharing.

With such narrow search parameters, it's hard to believe we haven't had ANY kind of update, clue, or subsequent information.