Human remains found in south London park, murder investigation launched

A murder investigation has been launched after human remains were found in a south London park.

Police consulted a forensic anthropologist who confirmed that what was found was human and came from one of the victims.

A search is underway at Rowdown Fields in Croydon after disturbing incidents were discovered on Tuesday.

Photos from the scene showed a cordon around the park and up to 10 police officers and police dogs standing in the parking lot.

Detective Inspector Martin Thorpe said: “As you would expect, my team worked very hard in the early stages of the investigation to co-ordinate the search and conduct the investigation as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

“We will not provide specific details about the search in the area but I can confirm that we have discovered further remains since yesterday.

“After consulting with forensic anthropologists, we are convinced these are humans.

“At this time, our search is not complete so locals will continue to see police in the area.

“This is being treated as murder and we currently believe the remains belong to one of the victims.

“Samples have been sent for urgent forensic analysis and I expect a special post-mortem examination will be carried out later this week.”

Investigators cannot yet provide any information about the victim, including age, gender or race, pending further testing.

Insp Thorpe added: “Our priority is to establish the identity of the victim but until we have fuller facts and know through a post-mortem examination we will not be able to confirm the person’s age, race or gender.

“A family has lost a loved one and as a team we are committed to finding them and making sure they get the answers they need to cope with their loss.”

Police are expected to remain at the scene throughout the night.

Chief Constable Lewis Collins, who oversees policing in Croydon, said: “This is a very disturbing discovery and over the past day or so communities in our borough have worked together to provide police with The space required for this task.” Important work.

“We are extremely grateful for their support and we continue to ask that speculation about this case be kept to a minimum. We will update people as soon as we have the latest news to share.”