Updated 1.05pm
TWO MORE PEOPLE have been arrested in connection with the death of 12-year-old London girl Tia Sharp.
A 46-year-old woman and a 39 year old man have been detained, according to Sky News. The woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and the man on suspicion of assisting an offender. Sky News is also reporting that the woman arrested is Christine Sharp, Tia’s grandmother.
Meanwhile local reporter David Churchill, who is at the scene, has tweeted that the second person arrested today is neighbour Paul Meehan.
Stuart Hazell, the 37-year-old boyfriend of Christine Sharp was arrested yesterday.
A body, which has yet to be formally identified, was found at Christine Sharp’s home yesterday. It’s understood Tia’s immediate family has been informed. The 12-year-old had been missing for a week from New Addington in south-east London.
Speaking yesterday Commander Neil Basu of the Metropolitan Police explained that the house where Tia had been last seen in was searched several times before a body was found.
A number of searches took place at the address. When Tia was first reported missing, officers searched her bedroom as is normal practice in a missing persons enquiry. A further search of the house took place in the early hours of Sunday morning by a specialist team. This was then followed by another search of the house by specialist dogs on Wednesday lunchtime.
What we now need to establish is how long the body had been in the place where it was found. This will be subject of the ongoing investigation and it would be wrong to jump to any conclusions until all the facts have been established.
Stuart Hazell was arrested yesterday after being identified by a member of the public. Sky News reports that an 11-year-old girl raised the alarm. Hazell had been seen in a shop in Merton in south London prior to his arrest.
Local reporter David Churchill of the Croydon Advertiser has been tweeting from the scene and reported that a Smart Car belonging to Tia’s grandmother has been removed from the scene by police. He also tweeted a picture of local children laying floral tributes:
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