A murder investigation has been launched after the body of a 34-year-old woman was found in a shallow grave in a garden in Kew, south west London.
Scotland Yard said Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, from Richmond, was reported missing after she did not turn up for work on Monday.
On Wednesday evening police officers found a body in a shallow grave in a garden in Darell Road, Kew.
The force said Garcia-Bertaux’s family have been told.
There have been no arrests and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course.
Neighbour Bob Bassett, 75, told the Press Association that he knew of Garcia-Bertaux, and would speak to her about her two large dogs.
“She was quiet. I never saw a boyfriend,” he said, adding that as far as he knows she lived in the ground-floor flat alone, and was originally from France.
Another neighbour who did not want to be named said he had previously seen her with a leonberger – a large breed of dog.
He said others on the street have told him they had seen a man visiting the property “now and again”, and added: “I did not see her very much.”