Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher - Emerson Valley - Milton Keynes - #6

[Steleheart]

Police 'working tirelessly' as search for missing Leah Croucher is stepped up

"Leah was last seen by family on Quantock Crescent, Emerson Valley, in Milton Keynes at around 10pm on Thursday (14/2) and was reported missing the next day.

Since the investigation began, a confirmed sighting of Leah was reported on Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, just after 8.15am on Friday (15/2), walking in the direction of Loxbeare Drive and Chaffron Way.

We would urge anyone who was in that area at the same time and may have seen her to get in touch.

Leah is white, of a slim build with below shoulder length brown hair and sometimes wears glasses.

She was last seen dressed in a black coat, skinny black jeans and black Converse high top shoes and was carrying a small black rucksack.

Leah is known to travel on foot through the Furzton area and into Knowlhill."

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[Sillybilly]

ADMIN NOTE:

Folks, please read Websleuths rules. Members can not, not, not post the names of non POIs/Suspects and sleuth out their background and post about it in this public discussion. If you want to search a property record, that is fine to link to a public document that shows those findings, but do not sleuth and bring the names of previous owners or other 'innocents' to the board just because they show up on a public document. Initials may be used but sleuthing out other information on them and posting it and/or making accusations against them is not allowed.

None of us would like it if we had previously owned a property and all of a sudden our names and lives and personal information were being discussed in relation to a crime. Just because some information is available in public records does not mean it is up for public discussion at Websleuths. If members wish to discuss in private conversation, that is fine, but it is irresponsible to splash the names of possibly/probably innocent people throughout a public crime discussion.

Also, just because LE says they won't comment does not mean Websleuthers can not discuss the case or what is in MSM. Sub judice is a judicial principle that applies when an alleged perp is arrested and to maintain the presumption of innocence throughout the judicial process.

On another note, we don't tell other members their opinions are ridiculous, just as they won't tell you the same. That's just bad manners. If you don't agree with an opinion, state your disagreement respectfully or scroll and roll.

If you can't post responsibly and respectfully toward all other members, please don't post.

 

[Tiff23fr]

Mod Note:
Several posts have been removed from thread for discussing information from social media. Do not bring over social media speculation, and do not passive aggressively bash other posters on WS. Future violations will result in time outs.

 

[YaYa_521]

Continue here.

 

[YaYa_521]

TY @Nikynoo.

ETA - & @ElizaKate

I forgot to unlock the new thread. Does someone have a spare cup of coffee? LOL

 

[Cherwell]

Don't hold much score with the DM, especially when the house ownership changes 3 times in that article between a Dubai-based owner, a Kuwaiti family and a Kuwaiti-based family. And they're using the term paedophile quite loosely; in fact the whole convicted sex offender angle is just sensationalism, given that it's since been reported he was in prison when Leah disappeared.

Too true. The term "paedophile" has been so consistently misused that we now have no term to refer to those who sexually abuse babies and pre-pubescent children. <modsnip: No link to info stated as fact>

 

[ElizaKate]

Thank you @YaYa_521!!

“It is as yet unclear whether anyone lived at the property in February 2019 when Leah went missing, but it is understood to have been empty for years.”

Surely if the house was occupied the police would know this by now and said person would be in for questioning which leads me to believe it was an empty property at the time.

Did LC and the murderer know that the house was empty and meet there?

If the murderer was unknown to LC they seemingly knew this house was empty and a good place to hide a body – therefore a local person.

There’s a murderer local or living in the area sh****ng their pants right now. You've got away with it for three years, but your time is up.

 

[Miss_French]

Apparently Leah didn't appear different on the morning of the 15th to other mornings:

"A 50-year-old mum who was probably the last person to see Leah Croucher before she disappeared has spoken out about how the teenager seemed "perfectly normal and calm" on that fateful morning."

'Was I the last person to see Leah Croucher?' asks Milton Keynes mum as another witness speaks out

She says Leah looked 'perfectly normal' and nodded a greeting at her minutes before she vanished

www.miltonkeynes.co.uk

 

[SouthLondon85]

Hi everyone, thank you for all of your (as ever) really helpful and thoughtful posts; to say I was shocked when I saw the news is an understatement. My thoughts are with Leah's family and friends, who have been dealing with the unimaginable.

I imagine that the pool of people who had keys to the house at the time Leah disappeared or a means of otherwise accessing it is extremely small.

 

[miss-scarlett23]

Working on the theory that Leah was being watched over a period of time, I think it's plausible the person responsible may have been waiting in a vehicle at the car park at the lake.
A section of that car park is very secluded from the main part of it. It's 0.4 of a mile from there to the house on Loxbeare, not even a 2 minute drive down a very quiet residential street.

 

[HollyHunter9]

Buzzacott lane to Loxbeare drive is only a 7 minute walk according to google maps. When Leah first went missing the police were asking people to check their sheds and garages yet a vacant empty property literally around the corner didn't come onto their radar? And if it wasn't vacant at the time did no one find it suspicious nobody answered the door?

In a tweet today Thames Valley Police ask residents to check their gardens, sheds and garages.

Residents asked to search their sheds as the search for Leah continues

Leah Croucher, aged 19, was last seen in Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, just after 8.15am on Friday 15th February. She was walking in the direction of Loxbeare Drive and Chaffron Way

www.mkfm.com

 

[GUCj]

To state the obvious, if there were signs of forced entry to that property, it would have been looked at much earlier and with far more conviction by the TVP.

That suggests whoever did this had keys and either rented the property or knew it was empty.
As said above, that's a very small and very traceable pool of people... neighbours, cleaners, letting agents, family members of the owners - that's probably about it.

Hopefully whoever it is hasn't escaped the country and will be arrested imminently...

 

[infinit]

To state the obvious, if there were signs of forced entry to that property, it would have been looked at much earlier and with far more conviction by the TVP.

That suggests whoever did this had keys and either rented the property or knew it was empty.
As said above, that's a very small and very traceable pool of people... neighbours, cleaners, letting agents, family members of the owners - that's probably about it.

Hopefully whoever it is hasn't escaped the country and will be arrested imminently...

To play devil's advocate, a lot of locks are trivial to pick by someone who somewhat knows what they're doing. I guess the problem then becomes how do you know the place isn't occupied. But surely unless it was the owner you would kind of expect she would be found eventually? It doesn't look like she was 15ft under concrete or something similar.

 

[Nikynoo]

Hi everyone, thank you for all of your (as ever) really helpful and thoughtful posts; to say I was shocked when I saw the news is an understatement. My thoughts are with Leah's family and friends, who have been dealing with the unimaginable.

I imagine that the pool of people who had keys to the house at the time Leah disappeared or a means of otherwise accessing it is extremely small.

I have been giving this some thought. Agents would have the keys and possibly previous tenants (if the locks were not changed). BUT, if it was widely known that the property was empty, then perhaps keys were not needed and another means of entry was made. Add to that, property maintenance, and perhaps family or friends of the owner and the circle gets wider.

Which brings me onto the skills needed to hide a body. I am guessing that the body was hidden - media reports have indicated that the body may have been hidden in the ceiling space - either between the ground and first floor or perhaps in the loft space.

If in the space between the grounf and first floor - floorboards/plaster boards would need to be lifted and replaced and perhaps any other flooring also (e.g. carpet or laminate). If in the loft space (beteen the ceiling of the first floor and the loft) not only have you got to get the body into the loft space, but you have the move or install the boarding- so not a small job and not quick either.

Does anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[smucklecrumble]

To play devil's advocate, a lot of locks are trivial to pick by someone who somewhat knows what they're doing. I guess the problem then becomes how do you know the place isn't occupied. But surely unless it was the owner you would kind of expect she would be found eventually? It doesn't look like she was 15ft under concrete or something similar.

Leah walked past the route often enough to probably notice if the property was vacant. My parents split their time abroad and the UK neighbour kids broke into the back garden because they knew my parents were away. They were caught on camera tho

 

[bringmeacupoft]

I can’t get my head around how nobody has entered the property in all this time? Even if the body was well hidden, wouldn’t the smell give it away?

Who would be happy not to have their property visited or checked on in 3 years?

Be interesting to know what the cleaners discovered first.

 

[GUCj]

To play devil's advocate, a lot of locks are trivial to pick by someone who somewhat knows what they're doing. I guess the problem then becomes how do you know the place isn't occupied. But surely unless it was the owner you would kind of expect she would be found eventually? It doesn't look like she was 15ft under concrete or something similar.

True, but the property isn't remote and is viewed from a fairly busy road out front and overlooked out back - so presumably not ideal for spending time picking locks?

It doesn't sound like a criminal mastermind, I'd be inclined to think opportunistic and somewhat rushed, more likely by someone she knew...I.e. went to the property with them - busy at that time in the AM so abduction unlikely...

 

[ElizaKate]

Does anyone else find it odd that the property has been empty for years? (If that does turn out to be the case as neighbours have said) If it's previously been rented out, why hasn't it been rented out over the past three years? A 4 bed house in MK wouldn't stay 'To Let' for long.

Almost like a decision was made NOT to rent the house out. Because they knew a body was decomposing under the floor boards and any tenant would notice that within weeks?... Pure Speculation

[Alternative could be because after the previous tenants conviction the owners just decided it wasn't worth the hassle anymore.]

 

[DFR3217]

I haven't followed this story closely, prior to this, but there is something bugging me. Did no one at all go in the house until the cleaners turned up more than three years later? I know there was the pandemic lockdowns, but that would have been a year after she disappeared. I just wonder if someone knew the house was empty and would stay empty?

 

[Cartie]

I have a background in lettings so thought I would do some digging. I could not find any old listing online for this property which is very unusual if let throughout an agency. So I then looked for its EPC to see when one was last done. There is no EPC, you should not rent a house without one. For example if you wanted to evict a tenany part of the paperwork you need to confirm that the tenant was given a copy of the EPC along with other paperwork upon signing, if these procedures were not follow you will struggle to evict. So with both these findings I do not think and agency was used or it is a very bad one.

Also someone mentioned if number 4 was put on the market shortly after LC disappearance. Usually agencies do an EPC when put on the market one was done on 5th September 2018 (as per attached SS) so that is likely around the time it went up for sale