Croydon murder: 'Single victim' as unidentified human remains found in New Addington

Police say unidentified human remains found in a south London park are believed to belong to one victim.

A crime scene was put in place in Rowdown Fields, New Addington after police were called at 9am on Tuesday (April 2).

A Met Police murder investigation is under way but detectives have not released any details of the victim as they work to identify them and notify the family.

Detective Inspector Martin Thorpe, from the Specialist Crime Command is leading the investigation. He said: “As you would expect, my team is working extremely hard in the early stages of this investigation to coordinate the search effort and carry out enquiries as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.

“We are not going to give specific details on our search of the area, but I can confirm that since yesterday we have recovered further remains. After consultation with a forensic anthropologist, we are certain that these are human.

“At this time, our search is not complete, and so local people will continue to see officers in the area.

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

“Samples have been sent away for urgent forensic analysis and I anticipate that a special post-mortem examination will take place later this week."

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Superintendent Lewis Collins, who oversees policing in Croydon, said: “This is a very disturbing discovery and over the last day or so, the community in our borough has pulled together to give officers the space they need to carry out this important work.

“We are very appreciative of their support and we continue to ask that speculation on this case is kept to a minimum. We will keep people informed as soon as we have updates to share.”

DI Thorpe said: “Our priority is to identify the victim, but until we are in possession of fuller facts, informed by the post-mortem examination we are not in a position to confirm the person’s age, ethnicity, or gender. A family has lost their loved one, and as a team, we are focusing on finding them and securing the answers they will need to come to terms with their loss."