Body found in missing woman hunt (From Evesham Journal)

Body found in missing woman hunt

12:57pm Friday 3rd August 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

Detectives looking for a missing oil executive have found a body in a lock-up garage, a day after the search for her became a murder inquiry.

Carole Waugh, 50, originally from Durham, has not been seen by her family since mid-April and concerns for her safety grew after a fraudster tried to sell her central London flat by posing as her brother.

Suspicious financial transactions running to thousands of pounds have also been made using her identity since she vanished, and her Cartier jewellery is missing.

Scotland Yard said a woman's body was found in a car in a garage in Lime Court, New Malden, south west London, on Thursday night and are appealing for information about the blue Volkswagen Golf with the registration number W466 NHL.

Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane said police need to hear from anyone with information on the car, particularly since April, who can assist on where it has been since then, or can advise on anyone with a connection to it.

Police announced on Wednesday that Miss Waugh's disappearance was being treated as a murder inquiry and arrested a 47-year-old man on suspicion of kidnap, conspiracy to defraud and murder. The body has not yet been formally identified and a post-mortem examination will take place later.

Miss Waugh, who owned a flat in Harrowby Street, Marylebone, was reported missing by her family on May 7. They last saw her at a family party in mid-April.

She had lived and worked in Libya for a number of years, but returned to London in 2008 and would regularly visit relatives in Durham and Cumbria. Detectives said she met men through a variety of internet sites, including dating websites, and they were investigating the possibility that she might have been an escort.

So far, a total of 10 people have been arrested in connection with the inquiry into Miss Waugh's disappearance. At least three women have tried to pose as her since she vanished, police said.

Miss Waugh's former boss, Stuart Anderson, told journalists that she had fled Libya after being threatened by someone in Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, but a Scotland Yard spokesman said inquiries are focused in London. He would not comment on reports that Miss Waugh's body had been in the garage for months.