The family of Leah Croucher have spoken of their devastation for the first time since their daughter’s body was found.
Her parents, John and Claire Croucher said their ‘faint glimmer of hope’ of her being alive has been ‘brutally extinguished’ after the teenager’s remains were found in the loft space of a house.
In a statemen they said: ‘As a family, we knew this heart-breaking news would come one day. The news that Leah had been taken from us, from this world, forever.
‘We are devastated that we have proven to be correct in this.
‘The faint glimmer of hope that we all held allowed us to fool ourselves into believing that our assumption could have been wrong.