Police have denied their own crime commissioner’s claim that ‘multiple bodies’ had been found in a wood – insisting searches have only uncovered one.
Officers have been scouring Paramoor Woods near the Cornish village of Sticker for several months – aided by specialist teams from the National Crime Agency.
They found the remains of Daniel Coleman, 43, earlier this month and a man was charged with his murder.
Mr Coleman vanished last month from St Austell and is thought to have died between June 2 and July 7.
Police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez told a panel that multiple bodies had been discovered as part of the investigation into his death.
‘We’ve found dead bodies in that wood,’ she said, adding that officers were trying to work out ‘how many were there’.
But Devon and Cornwall police refuted the claims.
Detective Superintendent Jon Bancroft said: ‘We currently have three separate murder investigations being conducted in the Cornwall area.
‘I have oversight of all of these investigations at this time, and can confirm they are being carried out independently of each other and are not believed to be linked.
‘I can categorically state that we have recovered remains believed to be those of Daniel Coleman only from an area of woodland in Sticker. No other remains have been located at this scene to date.’
Ms Hernandez said it had been necessary to bring in extra support to aid the investigation.
‘Some of the elements of that operation I can’t speak about but some of the things are very obvious,’ she said.
‘As you know there is a large crime scene that has been identified in Cornwall that is requiring a lot of effort to even scene guard the area.
‘The level of expertise, some of the mutual aid we’ve brought in, is expertise in specific types of investigations that we didn’t have.
‘The National Crime Agency is supporting the organisation at the moment.
‘I want to thank all the other forces that are coming in at a very busy time for themselves to offer mutual aid. It’s largely investigative mutual aid that we’ve brought in.
‘Until some of those elements have been established of exactly what we’re dealing with there, it will be made public at that time.
‘I know there’s been some information in the media. We’ve got a huge forensic tent down there.
Mr Coleman was reported missing on June 1.
James Desborough, 39, of Lower Sticker, has been charged with his murder.
Desborough has since appeared before Bodmin Magistrates’ Court and was remanded in custody.
He is due to appear before Truro Crown Court on August 8.
When asked 10 days ago about ‘multiple bodies’ in the search area, Devon and Cornwall Police said they were working to recover Mr Coleman’s body and that forensic investigations of the site related to him.