Woman found dead after being reported missing - Metropolitan Police Service, September 2018

On 22 September 2018 a woman’s friends and family reported her missing to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). She had failed to return home after reportedly going to see a man. Friends were concerned that the woman had left her children alone, which was out of character. She had also failed to see friends or visit places where she was expected to, and wasn’t responding to messages.

The MPS treated this as a ‘medium risk’ missing person’s enquiry. Officers began to make enquiries in order to locate her.

On 24 September 2018, the woman was found dead in the back garden of a house where the man she was to meet with lived. The man has since been arrested and charged with the woman’s murder.

The MPS referred this to us as a ‘death or serious injury’ matter and we began an independent investigation.

Our investigators reviewed the missing person’s report, local MPS policies and obtained accounts from the officers involved in the missing person’s enquiry. We served seven officers with notices that they were under investigation for a number of allegations, including that the medium-risk assessment for the missing person’s report may not have been appropriate, that officers had not undertaken appropriate lines of enquiry, that they may not have considered all available information when reviewing the missing person’s report, and that they may not have set meaningful lines of enquiry to progress the investigation. All seven officers provided us with an account.

Evidence suggested that missing person enquiries were conducted in line with the MPS Missing Person policy. The only possible further enquiry could have been an attempt to locate the man who the woman had met. However, with no surname, no address or other details such as date of birth, the evidence seems to show that there were no realistic enquiries that could have been made.

The MPS missing person’s investigation protocol defines a ‘high-risk’ assessment as a risk which is immediate and where there are substantial reasons for believing that the subject is in danger through their own vulnerability, or may have been a victim of a serious crime. There was no evidence to suggest that the above criteria were met during the time officers were making enquiries to locate the woman. Evidence also indicated that the decision to keep the risk as medium when reviewing the missing person’s report was in line with missing person guidance, since there had been no change in circumstances.

Based on the evidence available we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence.

After reviewing our report, the MPS agreed.

We completed our investigation in July 2019 but waited until the criminal trial into the woman’s murder had concluded before publishing its outcomes.