Family wait for news of quarry body

The family of a missing 15-year-old Essex girl face an agonising wait to discover whether a decomposed body found in a quarry is that of their daughter.

Forensic scientists are carrying out DNA tests to try formally to identify the body, thought to be that of Hannah Williams, and have told the family they will know for certain in the next two days.

Workmen found the remains of the girl, wrapped in blue tarpaulin, in a remote part of the Blue Circle cement site in Northfleet, Kent, on 15 March.

The body, aged between 14 and 20, was initially thought to be that of missing Essex girl Danielle Jones, also 15 but dental record checks showed that it was not her.

Such checks have not been possible in the case of Hannah Williams because her dental records were not up to date. Her family must now wait for the results of the DNA tests.

Hannah disappeared in April last year after leaving her family home in Deptford, saying she was going shopping.

Her mother Bernadette and her father William are so distraught that they have never been able to discuss her disappearance.

A south London man in his fifties was arrested on suspicion of her murder last Saturday, he was held in custody but released without charge yesterday.

Police said the body had been at the Blue Circle works for some time. Although the quarry is still operational the part where the body was discovered has not been touched for years and is overgrown.