Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher, 19, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, 14 Feb 2019 #4

[HollyHunter9]

So location services switched off around Furzton Lake area, which is the same area that folks saw a girl crying on the phone the next day. So that changes my thoughts and doubts about this not being Leah. I have to catch up again. It has been a long time since I read all the threads. Snapchat could definitely be how she communicated with Mr. X. And you can even talk like a phone call through Snapchat. I remember early on in the thread, I took screenshots of my Snapchat to show folks on the thread but I cannot remember why or what we were trying to figure out. I really need to do a little refresher. Well I have a long weekend here in the states with a long weekend holiday. I will go back and refresh my memory!!

Yes location turned off the day before in furzton lake area and then phone switched off day of disappearance 8.34am also in Furzton lake area. If her phone was switched off at 8.34am I really struggle with the eyewitnesses saying they saw a girl on the phone crying between 9.30am and 11.15am. But eye witnesses can notoriously be unreliable ~ could they have perhaps seen her but it was a different day? Or a different time? Or was it just someone who looked like her? But then why didn't they come forward to exclude themselves?

Leah Croucher search: Teenager 'seen 'crying by lake'
"Thames Valley Police said three people had reported possible sightings of Ms Croucher near Furzton Lake between 09:30 and 11:15 on that day.
All three said they believe they saw the woman on her phone."

 

[ChiCubs2016]

This a GREAT post!! Really well thought out I have respectfully snipped it for focus...yes this is the route I did when using street view on google maps ~

"It is possible however that she may have decided to use the underpass/ red way under the H7/ Chaffron way road, which goes all the way under watling street and comes out on the footpath right next to the hotel/ restaurant where her phone location was switched off at 8:34 day of her disappearance."

I have included an article here which states the direction she was walking which is why I did this particular route myself via street view on google maps.

Police investigating disappearance of Leah Croucher search Bletchley lake | ITV News

"Ms Croucher was last seen in Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, Milton Keynes on Friday 15 February this year. She was seen just after 8.15 am walking in the direction of Loxbeare Drive and Chaffron Way."

I can also see from your post after this that you too found out that her location when turned off the day before on her way home was also in the area of Furzton lake!! (Although I'm not sure if we have the specific area like we do when the phone is switched off at 8.34am in the northern area of Furzton lake near the hotel/restaurant on the day of the disappearance).

Family of missing Milton Keynes woman Leah Croucher look back on second year of torment as no further clues emerge

"They have narrowed her disappearance down to an 18 minute window of time and a single square mile of roads and green spaces in Milton Keynes.CCTV lost contact with Leah somewhere along the mile-long stretch between Buzzacott Lane in Furzton and Furzton Lake, and her phone was switched off or disconnected at exactly 8.34am at the northern end of Furzton Lake, close to the Premier Inn Hotel."

But I do believe that it is a pretty big coincidence that her phone location was switched off on two separate occasions but both times it was in the same area. (Her phone company also said this was the first time location services on her phone had ever been switched off).

Missing from Milton Keynes: Leah Croucher the timeline, everything we know so far

"5.45pm. Leah walks home from work. Strangely, the location settings on her Samsung phone were switched off in the Furzton Lake area. Nobody knows why. It could be that she was downloading another app that disabled them. But the mobile phone company has confirmed Leah had never turned off her location settings before."

We also know that 12 days prior to her going missing she met someone at a local hotel which she lied to her parents about.

Missing Leah Croucher, 19, was having affair with engaged man, family reveal | Daily Mail Online

'On Saturday February 3, 12 days before Leah disappeared, she announced she was going to book a hotel room and have a girlie night with two female friends, drinking alcohol and gossiping.Leah's dad dropped her at the Jury's Inn at Central Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and waved goodbye as she walked off.
It was only much later, when her bank statement arrived some time after Leah's disappearance, that the Crouchers realised their daughter had lied to them.'
So now what I am wondering ~ Could the Premier Inn Hotel at the northern end of Furzton lake be ANOTHER possible meeting place? Did the police check the CCTV from this hotel on the morning she went missing? There are so many clues and coincidences with this case I go round and round in circles with it.

You are right about the hotel near the lake? Could it have been a meeting place? From Google earth the hotel appears to have lots of CCTV.

 

[ChiCubs2016]

Yes location turned off the day before in furzton lake area and then phone switched off day of disappearance 8.34am also in Furzton lake area. If her phone was switched off at 8.34am I really struggle with the eyewitnesses saying they saw a girl on the phone crying between 9.30am and 11.15am. But eye witnesses can notoriously be unreliable ~ could they have perhaps seen her but it was a different day? Or a different time? Or was it just someone who looked like her? But then why didn't they come forward to exclude themselves?

Leah Croucher search: Teenager 'seen 'crying by lake'
"Thames Valley Police said three people had reported possible sightings of Ms Croucher near Furzton Lake between 09:30 and 11:15 on that day.
All three said they believe they saw the woman on her phone."

That is why I always discounting the sightings because of the time. 11:15 would be a long time. But you are correct, the day and timings could be off. Did we ever know where around the lake these eyewitnesses saw the crying girl?

 

[Firefly444]

I hadn’t actually considered Snapchat. Thank you for bringing that to my attention @dotr

I have seen the mentioning of the possibility of a burner phone in previous threads however again I like to keep an open mind and try and work with what we know to be fact. I also agree it’s a huge coincidence that for the first time ever Leah’s location is switched off on Valentine’s Day, and it gets switched off again on the day she disappears. Both happen to be by the Furzton lake area. Pretty strange to say the least. Also, thank you @HollyHunter9 for mentioning that about the hotel previously, that had also somehow slipped my memory. Perhaps I should look back on the threads as @ChiCubs2016 did.

But the fact she met someone 2-3 weeks prior and concealed that also by being flexible with the truth to where she went and who she was with. It’s odd that the hotel theme comes up again, also concealing the location with the services going off. I don’t think a hotel should be ruled out as a possible meeting spot, as Leah clearly had met someone at a hotel previously. But who?

 

[Firefly444]

View attachment 283853 View attachment 283854 View attachment 283855 View attachment 283856 View attachment 283857 I don’t think the police checked cctv of premier inn Furzton lake, @HollyHunter9, although I’d like to think they did through protocol and putting two and two together. However, it’s not impossible that this was skipped. I’m sure if there was more cctv of her it would have probably been released by now. I know that the other hotel cctv had gone by the time the parents had realised Leah had actually gone there instead of where she said she was going and was initially dropped off.



I also can agree that witness statements can be unreliable. At the end of the day, we are all just people. It is plausible that times and even dates could’ve been mixed up, especially due to the fact it was a morning of a Friday workday. Probably busy. Also last day of half term, people more than likely were engrossed in whatever they were doing that morning, which happens a lot unfortunately. But I will keep an open mind as again nobody has come forward. I’m going to see if there’s any more info on those witness statements I.e what were the witnesses doing at the lake at 9-11 am?
Does anyone remember reading anything regarding this?

Excuse the shoddiness, these images pretty much encapsulate my amateur detective work going on over here, but please see attached the first image which has both secluded red ways/ footpaths that lead to furtzon lake via Leah’s route from work on Davy avenue. The one to the left marked blue is the foot path that leads to shirwell crescent, from Rutherford gate, where Leah is known to pass through as seen on cctv few weeks before disappearance on her way from buzzacott lane to faraday drive. As you can see this is pretty secluded. I’ve also included the street view perspective next to it labelled in blue.


The red path/ foot path to the right which is marked red is the footpath that runs alongside the hotel/restaurant where Leah’s phone location was turned off at 8:34 on the day of her disappearance. Again, this is quite secluded, unbeknownst to me, until I tried to access street view and you cannot. There was an image however submitted by someone on Google to get a street view gauge of how open and secluded this area actually is.


Not to mention the several car parks dotted around the lake, and the open fields of secluded land. The bowl has a few car parks especially that are very closed in, and there is this car park in particular at the opposite end of the lake. However, I’d like to assume these areas have been checked it just is really true when they say more minds are better than one as I do believe we are doing a great job narrowing this down somehow.


What are your thoughts? Anyone else find it odd that there are no sightings of Leah from buzzacott lane to furtzon lake? There’s a good 10-20 mins on foot between the two.

 

[HollyHunter9]

View attachment 283853 View attachment 283854 View attachment 283855 View attachment 283856 View attachment 283857 I don’t think the police checked cctv of premier inn Furzton lake, @HollyHunter9, although I’d like to think they did through protocol and putting two and two together. However, it’s not impossible that this was skipped. I’m sure if there was more cctv of her it would have probably been released by now. I know that the other hotel cctv had gone by the time the parents had realised Leah had actually gone there instead of where she said she was going and was initially dropped off.



I also can agree that witness statements can be unreliable. At the end of the day, we are all just people. It is plausible that times and even dates could’ve been mixed up, especially due to the fact it was a morning of a Friday workday. Probably busy. Also last day of half term, people more than likely were engrossed in whatever they were doing that morning, which happens a lot unfortunately. But I will keep an open mind as again nobody has come forward. I’m going to see if there’s any more info on those witness statements I.e what were the witnesses doing at the lake at 9-11 am?
Does anyone remember reading anything regarding this?

Excuse the shoddiness, these images pretty much encapsulate my amateur detective work going on over here, but please see attached the first image which has both secluded red ways/ footpaths that lead to furtzon lake via Leah’s route from work on Davy avenue. The one to the left marked blue is the foot path that leads to shirwell crescent, from Rutherford gate, where Leah is known to pass through as seen on cctv few weeks before disappearance on her way from buzzacott lane to faraday drive. As you can see this is pretty secluded. I’ve also included the street view perspective next to it labelled in blue.


The red path/ foot path to the right which is marked red is the footpath that runs alongside the hotel/restaurant where Leah’s phone location was turned off at 8:34 on the day of her disappearance. Again, this is quite secluded, unbeknownst to me, until I tried to access street view and you cannot. There was an image however submitted by someone on Google to get a street view gauge of how open and secluded this area actually is.


Not to mention the several car parks dotted around the lake, and the open fields of secluded land. The bowl has a few car parks especially that are very closed in, and there is this car park in particular at the opposite end of the lake. However, I’d like to assume these areas have been checked it just is really true when they say more minds are better than one as I do believe we are doing a great job narrowing this down somehow.


What are your thoughts? Anyone else find it odd that there are no sightings of Leah from buzzacott lane to furtzon lake? There’s a good 10-20 mins on foot between the two.

These images are really helpful, thankyou for going to such effort! It's not easy to navigate street view (I found this to be true when I encountered 'teletubbie island' as you are unable to walk through it via street view) and I too made the same observations you have in that a lot of her route is very secluded.

But the most baffling part for me is like you say; the 10/20 minutes walk (perhaps someone local who has walked the route could confirm this timing) between Buzzacot lane and the northern end of Furzton lake when the phone is switched off; how is there no sightings of her along that part of the route? Like @sundaaaay mentioned up thread she is either:

1. In the lake
2. Got into a car and left the area
3. Entered a house

When this first happened I thought number 1. Then I came to believe number 2. But now I am starting to think number 3. But instead of a house did she enter the Premier Inn hotel? But if we have come to this assumption with our amateur detective skills and only google surely the police did too? Perhaps they have and this info has not yet been released by the police.

Oh yes I too will keep an open mind regarding the witnesses but something keeps niggling at me that it wasn't her crying by the lake or if it was, it was a different day/time. For example a few years ago my husband and I were on holiday in Cyprus and I became convinced a rather glamorous, dark haired, middle aged lady staying in our hotel was Jane Macdonald (you know the cruise ship singer). For about a week everytime I saw her I kept grabbing my husband saying "look there she is!" Although he never really got a full look at her until our last day when she was checking out the same time we were. I nudged my husband and nodded towards her direction in the foyer and my husband proceeded to collapse into a fit of laughter as it quite clearly was NOT Jane Macdonald! But I had been convinced of it for an entire week and I saw her several times!

And yes I completely agree with you on -

"more minds are better than one as I do believe we are doing a great job narrowing this down somehow"

I think I too over the weekend will read back through some of the older threads to refresh my memory of some of the details.

 

[Spiderplant]

Missing Leah Croucher: Police plea to Milton Keynes residents

Can I ask if anyone knows if this is a usual request to check sheds and garages?

it struck me when considering the proposal of option3 ‘she entered a house or building’.

I suppose I always remain hopeful Leah is alive and held against her will and it made me think about if the above request was linked to this line of thought...

Opinion my own.

 

[HollyHunter9]

Missing Leah Croucher: Police plea to Milton Keynes residents

Can I ask if anyone knows if this is a usual request to check sheds and garages?

it struck me when considering the proposal of option3 ‘she entered a house or building’.

I suppose I always remain hopeful Leah is alive and held against her will and it made me think about if the above request was linked to this line of thought...

Opinion my own.

That's a really interesting observation and I'm not entirely sure. Without meaning to sound disrespectful it is the sort of plea you hear when someone is looking for a lost pet, such as a missing cat. Although, having just done a quick google search numerous posts came up about missing persons and calling on the public to check sheds and garages so perhaps this is the typical first line of search before moving onto other avenues/possibilities?

 

[Cherwell]

Or was it just someone who looked like her? But then why didn't they come forward to exclude themselves?

Would you know if they had?

 

[HollyHunter9]

Would you know if they had?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean? Do you mean would I know if they came forward if it was someone else crying at that lake?

Then no I don't know but going on the facts I can find in MSM the police appealed for who ever it was to come forward ~

Missing teen Leah Croucher may have been seen crying on day of disappearance | ITV News

Police have not been able to confirm the sightings were of Miss Croucher, but have urged anyone else with information to come forward.

 

[Cherwell]

I mean that when a possible lead is eliminated, it's not usually made public. The police wouldn't make a point of informing the media, so that kind of thing usually goes unreported.

 

[HollyHunter9]

I mean that when a possible lead is eliminated, it's not usually made public. The police wouldn't make a point of informing the media, so that kind of thing usually goes unreported.

Oh yes, I see what you mean now. Yes you are quite right that the police do not always make public certain aspects of evidence/case leads but you would think if they made a public appeal for someone to come forward and then that person did come forward, the police would then be able to eliminate that "sighting" as not being Leah, so surely they then wouldn't carry on mentioning the girl crying by the lake? But yes I can definitely see what you're saying that not everything is made public.

 

[Cherwell]

No, they wouldn't mention it once it had been cleared up, so you can only look at the last time it was mentioned. If it's been a long time, they've either eliminated it or given up on it. Not much help, I know!
I haven't followed this in minute detail, but in this case if someone had ruled out the girl being Leah, it's possible that a family member might mention it.

 

[Frivolous]

I believe this has already been bought up, but what if the 13th of February was the intended date (whether that be intentional by Leah going off on her own accord or another party being involved) rather than the 14th? It would make sense because of the location services being turned off a little ahead of time.

Perhaps something went wrong and it had to be called of then? But then I also waver with this because whatever it could of been makes sense on Valentines.

Some great ideas and thoughts being brought up, glad to see that this thread is still active!

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

90.5% of people living in Milton Keynes speak English. The other top languages spoken are 1.5% Polish, 0.8% Tamil, 0.6% Urdu, 0.5% Bengali, 0.4% Gujarati, 0.3% All otherChinese, 0.3% French, 0.3% Spanish, 0.3% Panjabi.

Milton Keynes Census Demographics United Kingdom - Qpzm LocalStats UK

Maybe new appeals in all the above MK languages would help keep Leah in mind?

 

[Firefly444]

What a brilliant suggestion! @Jenesaisquoi

just a thought but how do you guys feel about the forensic astrology forum on here? It’s pretty amazing what someone did with the Casey Anthony Case. Is it still open?

 

[Stewlb]

View attachment 283853 View attachment 283854 View attachment 283855 View attachment 283856 View attachment 283857 I don’t think the police checked cctv of premier inn Furzton lake, @HollyHunter9, although I’d like to think they did through protocol and putting two and two together. However, it’s not impossible that this was skipped. I’m sure if there was more cctv of her it would have probably been released by now. I know that the other hotel cctv had gone by the time the parents had realised Leah had actually gone there instead of where she said she was going and was initially dropped off.



I also can agree that witness statements can be unreliable. At the end of the day, we are all just people. It is plausible that times and even dates could’ve been mixed up, especially due to the fact it was a morning of a Friday workday. Probably busy. Also last day of half term, people more than likely were engrossed in whatever they were doing that morning, which happens a lot unfortunately. But I will keep an open mind as again nobody has come forward. I’m going to see if there’s any more info on those witness statements I.e what were the witnesses doing at the lake at 9-11 am?
Does anyone remember reading anything regarding this?

Excuse the shoddiness, these images pretty much encapsulate my amateur detective work going on over here, but please see attached the first image which has both secluded red ways/ footpaths that lead to furtzon lake via Leah’s route from work on Davy avenue. The one to the left marked blue is the foot path that leads to shirwell crescent, from Rutherford gate, where Leah is known to pass through as seen on cctv few weeks before disappearance on her way from buzzacott lane to faraday drive. As you can see this is pretty secluded. I’ve also included the street view perspective next to it labelled in blue.


The red path/ foot path to the right which is marked red is the footpath that runs alongside the hotel/restaurant where Leah’s phone location was turned off at 8:34 on the day of her disappearance. Again, this is quite secluded, unbeknownst to me, until I tried to access street view and you cannot. There was an image however submitted by someone on Google to get a street view gauge of how open and secluded this area actually is.


Not to mention the several car parks dotted around the lake, and the open fields of secluded land. The bowl has a few car parks especially that are very closed in, and there is this car park in particular at the opposite end of the lake. However, I’d like to assume these areas have been checked it just is really true when they say more minds are better than one as I do believe we are doing a great job narrowing this down somehow.


What are your thoughts? Anyone else find it odd that there are no sightings of Leah from buzzacott lane to furtzon lake? There’s a good 10-20 mins on foot between the two.

 

[Stewlb]

I now think if Leah's phone was turned off by the hotel it is also possible she could have been picked up at the bus stop/ pre arranged maybe? which would explain why there is no CCTV from by the hotel and yes that is a 10-20 minute walk from where she was last seen in Buzzacot Lane...

 

[Spiderplant]

Thinking of Leah and the Croucher's today, Hayden included.

 

[HollyHunter9]

I now think if Leah's phone was turned off by the hotel it is also possible she could have been picked up at the bus stop/ pre arranged maybe? which would explain why there is no CCTV from by the hotel and yes that is a 10-20 minute walk from where she was last seen in Buzzacot Lane...

Thank you for clarifying timing and for the image above. It does seem that if the evidence points to her phone being turned off at the northern part of lake near the premier Inn and there is no further CCTV or sightings of her past that point then that would likely be the point of disappearance.

I've been reading back through some of the MSM articles from when she initially went missing and I found this statement quite interesting and hadn't picked up on it before...

Leah Croucher: 'Potential sightings' after one-year anniversary appeal

Det Ch Insp Andy Howard previously said he thought there were friends or associates of Ms Croucher who "potentially hold more information about Leah's life than they are willing to share with the police so far".