Detectives investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl 14 years ago have begun exhuming graves at a cemetery in the West Midlands.
Natalie Putt was 17 and had an 11-week-old son when she disappeared after leaving her home in Dudley to visit a shop in September 2003. Officers have carried out searches near her home, including in lakes, rivers and farmland, but failed to make a breakthrough.
On Tuesday, West Midlands police said officers were acting on new information as they exhumed a number of graves in Ruiton Cemetery in Upper Gornal, near Dudley.
DI Ian Iliffe from the force’s cold case review team said: “All cases are periodically reviewed and the disappearance of Natalie has led us to believe that we are looking at a murder inquiry.
“We have had no positive sightings of Natalie in all these years and there has never been any financial activity connected to her bank accounts or any access to health services across the country, which points to the fact that she is no longer alive.
“We also believe that at least two people know what has led us to this site [in Upper Gornal] and they may have further information which could assist our search. We would very much like to hear from them.”
In a statement to the media, the sisters of the missing teenager, Becky and Lowri, said: “To hear of the news and events regarding Natalie’s disappearance is absolutely devastating to all of the family. We are obviously very upset about the developments and as such would ask that our family is left in peace until such time that we hear of definitive news from the police.
“In the near 14 years that Natalie has been missing, we have never given up hope of finding her safe and well. Until we know anything to the contrary, this remains the case.”
A police spokesman said the search was expected to take several days. An 18-year-old local man was arrested in March 2004 in connection with Natalie’s disappearance, but was released without charge.
