Missing student nurse Owami Davies has been found safe and well after a seven-week police search. Officers said the 24-year-old, who went missing on 4 July, had been found in Hampshire on Tuesday, and that she appeared to be fit and well cared for.
The discovery came as a result of a call to police at 10.30am from a member of the public who had seen media appeals for information. Ms Davies has since spoken to her family, who were informed that she had been found.
Det Ch Insp Nigel Penney, of the Metropolitan Police specialist crime unit, said: “This is the outcome we were all hoping and praying for. My team have been working around the clock to find Owami, and we are immensely relieved she has been found.”
He added: “She looks in good health, she’s in a place of safety, and not currently in the vulnerable state that we were led to believe she was in at the start of her disappearance.”
Despite the arrests of five people and numerous appeals for information, officers struggled to locate Ms Davies as they trawled through 117 reported sightings of the student nurse. The 118th report, made on Tuesday, was the one that led to her being found.
Both Det Ch Insp Penney and Met commander Paul Brogden said they were “ecstatic” at the outcome of the case, with Commander Brogden adding: “More importantly I’m pleased for Owami’s mother and her brother.”
Officers confirmed on Tuesday that all five people who had been arrested – two on suspicion of murder and three on suspicion of kidnap – were still on police bail, and that a decision on what will happen next will take place following a “full debrief”. Police said there was no evidence that Ms Davies had come to any harm.
Det Ch Insp Penney added that officers would now talk to Ms Davies to try to establish what had led to her disappearance.
“Owami will be spoken to and we’ll try to fathom reasons as to how she disappeared, why she disappeared, and if there was any concern around the days and weeks while she was disappeared for us to be concerned about,” he said.
Asked whether Ms Davies was aware of the scale of the search for her, he said he believed she “probably was”, given the amount of publicity the case had attracted.
Commander Brogden said: “Obviously we’ll be dealing compassionately with Owami from this point onwards, with partner agencies, but great news here.”
The Met Police and Essex Police will now carry out a review of their actions from the time when Owami was first reported missing, to “ensure they have acted correctly and to identify any ways to improve its response to finding other missing people”, Commander Brogden added.
It follows criticism of the handling of the investigation, which saw police issue a picture of the wrong woman in the search for Ms Davies, and questions about how the two forces communicated over her disappearance.
After leaving her family home on 4 July, Ms Davies was reported as missing to Essex Police on 6 July.
Met Police officers encountered the student nurse in Clarendon Road, Croydon on 6 July, but she informed officers that their help wasn’t required and left.
The Met Police later learned that Ms Davies had been reported missing by her family earlier that day, but Essex Police had failed to update the police national computer with that information.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also considering whether to investigate Scotland Yard following the officers’ contact with Ms Davies.
