The family of Leah Croucher have said their “faint glimmer of hope” of her being alive has been “brutally extinguished” after the teenager’s remains were found in the loft space of a house.
In a tribute to their “bright, funny young” daughter, the 19-year-old’s family said they knew the “heartbreaking news” of her death would “come one day” but they are “devastated” to have been proven right.
“The deepest, darkest grief that we, Leah’s family and friends are experiencing over the past weeks shows us that glimmer was actually, foolishly, a shining beacon of hope, which has now been brutally extinguished in the cruellest and harshest of ways,” they said.
“It has been a long way to fall back to reality.”
Ms Crocher’s remains were found more than four years after she went missing on her way to work at a finance company in Milton Keynes on 15 February 2019.
The prime suspect has been named by police as convicted sex offender Neil Maxwell, who was found dead on 20 April 2019 after he took his own life.
