Leah Croucher's body yet to be released for funeral 12 weeks on due to continuing police investigation in Milton Keynes

The investigation into the murder of Leah Croucher is still “active and ongoing” Major Crime Unit officers confirmed this week.

For this reason, police have been unable to release her body for a funeral to take place and for her family to lay her to rest.

It is now more than 12 weeks since human remains were found in the attic of a house in Loxbeare Drive, Furzton, which was on the 19-year-old’s route to work.

Possessions Leah had been carrying on the day she went missing – February 15 2019 – were also found at the house.

A murder investigation began and within days police named a suspect, 49-year-old property maintenance worker Nell Maxwell. A convicted sex offender and rapist, he was said to be the only person with keys to the house at the time Leah vanished.

But Maxwell hanged himself in a communal bin cupboard in a block of flats at Campbell Park in April 2019 – two months after Leah went missing.

Wanted by police for a sexual assault on a woman in Newport Pagnell, he had told friends he could not bear the thought of going back to prison and had evaded arrest 18 times in five months.

With a dead suspect, the case could have been concluded for police – and Leah’s heartbroken family would finally have some closure.

But now it seems the Major Crime Unit is still investigating whether Maxwell was indeed the murderer or if anybody else was involved.

Specialist forensic officers have already conducted a three-week long examination of the £500,000 Loxbeare Drive house but no results or clues have yet been made public.

A police spokesman said at the end of the forensic scrutiny: “Whilst Maxwell has been nominated as a suspect, this does not mean he is guilty of any offence. We will keep an open mind.”

He added: “Our detailed investigation will seek to gather sufficient evidence to establish the truth. This may or may not implicate or exonerate Maxwell or any other persons from the investigation.”

Meanwhile a Home Office post-mortem on Leah has initially showed the cause of death to be “inconclusive”.

This week a police spokesman told the Citizen: “Thames Valley Police’s Major Crime Unit are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Leah’s death.”

He added: “When we are able to provide further updates, we will do so, but we can confirm this remains an active and ongoing murder investigation.”

Tragically, the Croucher family lost Leah’s brother Haydon in November 2019. The caring 24-year-old was so troubled at not knowing what happened to his sister that he took his own life.

The pair’s sister Jade has since spoken out, saying that whoever murdered Leah also has “Haydon’s blood on their hands”.

She said: “I honestly do not know how we will ever recover from this excruciating pain, the sheer horror of what we have been put through… For now all I can take comfort in is the thought that you two are together in heaven, where one day I will be reunited with you both.”