A body recovered from the Thames last month is believed to be that of a missing London student, police have revealed — amid criticism of the search for her.
Samaria Ayanle, 19, was in her first year studying Japanese and history of art at SOAS University in Bloomsbury when she vanished.
She was last seen on CCTV at her student accommodation near Marble Arch in the early hours of February 22. Later that morning, a member of the public alerted officers to a body near Putney Pier. No personal property was found on the body and fingerprint tests failed to establish the identity.
A missing persons investigation into Ms Ayanle’s disappearance was only launched last Friday when university staff reported it to police. It was only then that police working to identify the body were able to link the inquiries.
Some of Ms Ayanle’s friends described the gap as “unforgivable and unjust”. On a social media page set up to find Ms Ayanle, a friend wrote: “Rest in power. My heart goes to you. The treatment of this case by the police and SOAS is shocking. Her having been found on the same day yet being unidentified for almost three weeks is unforgivable and unjust.”
Another claimed that university staff were initially “unhelpful and stand-offish”. The Standard understands staff “immediately” tried to contact Ms Ayanle by mobile, email and through her family.
She was a resident at student accommodation Nutford House, where managers were today supporting students affected by the tragedy. A SOAS spokesman said: “When a tragic death like this occurs, we know that people will have many questions to make sense of what has happened, and we await the conclusion of the police investigation.
“We also want to provide reassurance that when students raised concerns about Samaria Ayanle with the university, we immediately began taking steps to attempt to contact Samaria, including attempting to contact her next-of-kin, contacting Samaria directly, and asking for checks to be made in her halls of residence.”
Police believe the person found is Ms Ayanle but are awaiting formal identification. Her death is being treated as unexplained, pending further enquiries.
A student said: “We are very shocked. She seemed very nice and sweet, none of us know what to make of it. There needs to be a full investigation.”
