A woman grieving the death of her teenage sister, feared to have been murdered by a convicted sex offender, has expressed her "excruciating pain" in a heartbreaking statement.
Several weeks after police confirmed that the remains of her sister Leah had been found in a house close to where she went missing in 2019, 26-year-old Jade Croucher took to social media.
Police named sex offender Neil Maxwell, 49, as the prime suspect in her murder - who took his own life just two months after 19-year-old Leah disappeared on February 15, 2019.
Young mum Jade said: “The agony and pain of wondering where you are is now over, yet the torture is far from being done.
"We now face the scariest reality, our worst nightmare.
"That you, our beautiful, loving, caring, innocent girl have been murdered by someone so evil.”
Jade and her family spent three years and eight months longing for answers and praying for Leah to come home.
She said: “We knew something was wrong, we vowed from the very start that you did not choose to disappear.
"We were certain you wouldn’t put us through the worry. We knew in our hearts that something terrible had happened.
“But when the news was broken to us that your body was found in that house of horrors on a path on your route to work our worlds crumbled...
“How could anyone bring such a beautiful life to an end in such a tragic way? How could anyone upset you, let alone harm you?”
Just months after Leah's disappearance her brother Haydon Croucher, 24, took his own life - distraught at not knowing what had happened to her.
Jade said: “I honestly do not know how we will ever recover from this excruciating pain, the sheer horror of what we have been put through and most importantly the heartache of losing you, especially like this.”
She added: “Let it be known to the whole wide world that the person responsible for your murder has Haydon’s blood on their hands too.”
“For now all I can take comfort in is the thought that you two are together in heaven where one day I will be reunited with you both.”
Jade said: “I hope you know how hard we fought to find you.. I hope you know how loved you are by all of us, your family, your friends, the whole of Milton Keynes and in fact far beyond.
“Our Leah, your warmth, radiance and beautiful soul made such an impact on the lives of those of us lucky enough to be blessed with knowing you and loving you…
"Sleep tight my baby sister, in the peace that you deserve away from this cruel world.”
After Leah disappeared on her way to work in 2019, the police originally found no leads despite an intensive investigation.
But two weeks ago on October 11, police were called to a house on Loxbeare Drive in Furzton, in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
Police discovered human remains hidden in the loft, at a house in the middle of Leah’s route to work.
Four days after launching the murder investigation, police identified 49-year-old handyman and convicted sex offender Neil Maxwell as a suspect.
Maxwell took his own life in April 2019.
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