A 28-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Kayleigh Haywood after police found a body in undergrowth near a lake in Ibstock, Leicestershire.
Leicestershire police said on Thursday night that Stephen Beadman, 28, from Ibstock, had been charged with murdering the 15-year-old. A second man, Luke Harlow, 27, also of Ibstock, has been charged with grooming and two counts of sexual activity with a child, police said.
Kayleigh, from Measham in Leicestershire had not been seen since 6pm on Friday 13 November, when she was dropped off outside Ibstock community college in Central Avenue.
A body, which police say they believe to be the schoolgirl, was discovered near a lake in Ibstock,on Wednesday night and recovered at Thursday lunchtime. Her mobile phone and other items belonging to her had already been found, leading police to believe she had been killed.
Police searched a number of locations including the Sence Valley Forest Park and two houses on the newly built Bakers Croft housing development in Ibstock. Officers examined CCTV footage in an attempt to establish Kayleigh’s movements, and conducted house-to-house enquiries. A social media campaign was launched with the hashtag #HelpFindKayleigh.
The news that police were treating the investigation as a murder inquiry came 24 hours after Kayleigh’s parents made an emotional appeal for her to come home.
Outside the gates of the Sence Valley Forest park, one of the sites where police had been looking for traces of Kayleigh, bouquets and messages had been left as well as purple ribbons – her favourite colour. Among the tributes was one which said: “Heaven gains another angel too early.”
