Sandringham body identified as missing Latvian student
Murder detectives have identified the body of a young woman discovered by a dog walker on the royal family's estate in Sandringham on New Year's Day.
Norfolk police say the remains are those of Alisa Dmitrijeva, a 17-year-old Latvian student who went missing from her home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in August.
The teenager's family, who moved to the UK three years ago, said in a statement that they were devastated by the news and asked to be allowed to grieve in private.
Police said the body, found in woodland at Anmer, near Sandringham, west Norfolk, had been identified using palm records and DNA testing.
Dmitrijeva was last seen in Friars Street, King's Lynn, on 31 August. She was reported missing by a family member a week later.
Since then, there had been a number of unconfirmed sightings, and police had offered a £5,000 reward for information on her whereabouts. At the time of her disappearance, detectives said they wanted to trace the movements of a P-registered green Lexus GS300.
Police, who have spoken to the Sandringham gamekeeper, estate manager and beaters in their search for potential leads, said the site where the body was found is used regularly for pheasant and partridge shoots, often attended by members of the royal household. A pheasant shoot is known to have taken place on 28 December.
Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, senior investigating officer in the case, said: "I shall now be liaising with officers from Cambridgeshire who have been working on trying to locate Alisa in recent months as a missing person. The information they provide will give me and the team an extra focus to the inquiry.
"I should also add we are still trying to establish any activity which took place on or around the site during the time frame of the end of August to the end of September 2011.
"We would like to identify people who may have worked in that area or were involved in organising or running any specific events that may have taken place."
It is understood that Dmitrijeva's mother, Anzela, moved to the UK three years ago to work in a food processing factory and was joined by her husband and two daughters a few months later. Alisa Dmitrijeva lived with her father, sister and grandmother at a rented house in Wisbech, while her mother stayed in Lincoln.
Before the body was discovered, Anzela Dmitrijeva had told of her growing fears for her daughter."In my heart for a long time now, I have said it is finished," she told reporters. "I hope Alisa is alive, but I think something bad has happened."
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