Body in well: seven held by police on suspicion of murder

Seven men are being questioned on suspicion of murder by police over the discovery of a body in a well in Surrey. The body was recovered by specialist police officers on Saturday and had been there a number of weeks, Scotland Yard said. Two workmen made the discovery as they were doing clearing work in the front garden of the large property in Audley Drive, Warlingham, which stands in an acre of grounds in an affluent area. The seven men arrested on suspicion of murder were aged between 21 and 27, police said. A Met spokesman said: "Specialist officers including Metropolitan police divers attended the scene and the process of recovering the body from the well has been completed." A postmortem examination is due to take place at East Surrey hospital. Detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons said: "It is a murder investigation. As far as I am concerned, when a body is found in a well it
either fell in there or was placed in there, and the evidence is apparent that the body was placed in there." He said the retrieval presented a number of logistical challenges, requiring a police marine diving team with breathing apparatus to recover the remains to preserve forensic evidence. "The well is two feet in diameter, it is seven feet deep to the waterline and the water is approximately four feet deep," he said. He said it was not possible to be sure of the body's gender but judging by the size it was most likely to be an adult. The person was white. "It's not been there for an extended period of time; it will be a matter of weeks at the most." He was not prepared to discuss who lived in the house or a suggestion that the body was wrapped in carpet. He could not confirm whether the body was intact. Asked about claims by local residents that there had been trouble in the past couple of years with the people who lived in the house, and that police had been called many times, he said: "The residents have expressed concern, there is intelligence to support that notion, yes." He appealed for anyone who had concerns about a person who has gone missing, especially if they had connections to that area, to come forward.

From UK Guardian