The stepbrother of the Bristol teenager Becky Watts and his girlfriend are being questioned over the girl’s kidnap and murder.
Nathan Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Phillips, 21, were arrested at the weekend as police desperately searched for 16-year-old Becky.
Police were given extra time to question the pair on Tuesday after body parts were found at a house about two miles from Becky’s home.
Matthews is a delivery driver and claims on his Facebook page that he served in the British army. Phillips posted appeals for information about Becky on social media before she was arrested. They have a young child.
Police are also holding four men and a woman, all in their 20s, on suspicion of assisting an offender. The five were arrested after the remains were discovered.
In a statement released by police, Becky’s father Darren and stepmother Anjie Galsworthy expressed their horror at the finding of body parts. “To receive such news about our dear daughter and stepdaughter Becky is too much to bear. We have the support of a good family network to help us in these challenging times. We would ask that you treat Becky with the due reverence and allow us to come to terms with our grief in private.”
Becky’s mother, Tania, grandmother, Pat, and brother Daniel said in another statement: “We are devastated to be told of this latest development. We are at an utter loss to understand why anyone would want to hurt our beautiful Becky in such a brutal way.
“We are grateful to the police for all they have done and are continuing to do in this investigation. Whilst there are people in custody, none of whom are connected to the Watts family, we will not be making any further comment and we ask that our privacy is respected at this horrific time.”
Police efforts have been scattered at search sites across the city since Becky vanished from her home in St George, to the east of the city centre on 19 February.
On Tuesday, they were focused more narrowly on Barton Court, a cul-de-sac of modern red brick homes.
Barton Court, Bristol, where the remains of 16 yr old Becky Watts have been found. pic.twitter.com/hQTzmALHvz
— steven morris (@stevenmorris20) March 3, 2015
DS Mike Courtiour, of Avon and Somerset police, said overnight on Monday police had received information that Becky’s body had been “cut up” and a search of the property in the Barton Hill area of the city revealed the parts.
The Barton Court address is about 100 metres from Becky’s 17-year-old boyfriend’s home in Cotton Mill Lane.
One line police are looking at is that she was going to see him on the day she vanished. Another address police have been focusing on is on the opposite side of this street.
One local, who did not want to be named, but knows Matthews and Phillips, said: “She [Phillips] messaged me on the Friday [20 February] and she asked me if I had seen Becky or I could help with the search.
“She’s just a normal person, they both are. There’s no reason they could do it. I’ve been racking my brains but I just don’t get it. Shauna knew Becky but not particularly well. Nathan is Becky’s stepbrother.”
A third address that detectives have been probing is five miles away in the Southmead area of Bristol.
It is understood that the police are working with officials from the Crown Prosecution Service, a common practice in major incidents. Officers are going through hours of CCTV footage to try to find images of Becky after she vanished and to try to track the movements of a black Vauxhall Zafira car.
Floral tributes have begun to be left close to the house at Barton Court. One simply read: “RIP Becky Watts.” Another said: “Becky, you will be sadly missed but never forgotten.”
