Police uncover body in suitcase

Richard Henry Emery was last seen in March and reported missing in April

Detectives who discovered the remains of a Bournemouth man in a suitcase "strongly believe" he was murdered.

Police have confirmed that the body is that of Richard Henry Emery, 61, who disappeared from his flat in the Townsend area at the end of April.

The buried suitcase was uncovered on Saturday by police near a footpath linking Throop Road with Cheshire Drive in Bournemouth, Dorset Police said.

A 34-year-old man and a woman, 46, from Bournemouth have been arrested.

A post-mortem examiniation carried out by Dr Debbie Cook, a Home Office pathologist, proved inconclusive.

Det Ch Insp Neil Redstone said: "Although the cause of death is unascertained, there are definite indications that Mr Emery was assaulted before being put in the suitcase and we strongly believe that Mr Emery was murdered."

Extensive inquiries... have included the Blackpool area of Lancashire and the Newquay area of Devon. Dorset Police spokesman

Mr Emery, who police said was dependent on alcohol, was last seen on 20 March and reported missing on 29 April.

A block of sheltered flats at Castle Dean Lodge, in Throop Road - where Mr Emery lived - remains sealed off, as does the nearby footpath.

A police spokesman said: "The flats and the nearby path were sealed off... after very recent information was received from the public suggesting that Mr Emery may have come to some harm."

He added that "extensive inquiries" had taken place in the Blackpool area and in Newquay, near Bigbury in Devon.

Earlier on Sunday, magistrates granted detectives a further 36 hours to question the man and woman arrested in connection with the inquiry.