Murder hunt begins after body of girl, 9, is found

Police launched a murder inquiry last night after the body of missing nine-year-old Kayleigh Ward was found in the river Dee, near Chester.

Police had been conducting an extensive search for the girl, described as "streetwise", since she vanished on 19 December, after leaving the Chester hostel where she lived with her mother and her sister, to buy chips. A post-mortem examination was conducted by a Home Office pathologist and police are treating her death as murder. The body was found yesterday by a man walking his dog along a stretch of the river just over the border in north Wales.