Breaking news - police release images of woman they believe may be the 'lady in the lake' whose body was found in the south of the Banbury area

Police hope these images will help them prove the identity of a lady whose body was found in a lake in the south of the Cherwell district last week

At just before 8.30pm last Monday, August 16, Thames Valley Police were called to reports of a body being located in Cresswell Lake. Very sadly, the body of a woman was recovered from the water.

The woman has still yet to be identified and a post-mortem examination conducted on Friday has been 'inconclusive' as to the cause of her death.

Detective Inspector Tracey Benham, based at Banbury police station, said: “We are still treating the death of the woman as unexplained, but as yet, we have been unable to ascertain her identity.

“Despite extensive investigations, we have exhausted lines of enquiry as to identifying the woman, and so we are taking the decision to release these CCTV images, captured on August 8, as we have ascertained that this is very sadly the woman who was located in the water.

“We have had no missing person reports in the Thames Valley of a woman matching the description, which is a female with shoulder length dark hair.

“She is a light skinned female of slim to medium build and approximately 5ft 6ins tall aged approximately in her mid-twenties.

“She was wearing an olive green Barbour jacket, a burnt orange jumper and orange/red and cream striped long-sleeved t-shirt and fitted blue jeans.

“We are continuing to conduct enquiries to try and ascertain her identity and contact next of kin.

“I would ask anybody with any information, no matter how insignificant you believe this may be, to contact 101, or make a report online quoting incident reference 2048 (16/8).

“This is a tragic incident and we are determined to find out who the deceased person is and are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to identify her and notify her next of kin.

“I would again ask anybody who was aware of a woman matching the description given in the area over the last few weeks, or knows the identity of the woman seen in this CCTV image, to please get in touch.

“We have had reports of a woman who was in the area knocking on doors and asking for a shower, and we believe that this may have been this person.

“Any information that you may have that could assist this investigation will be gratefully received and will hopefully allow us to locate the woman's family and offer the support that they will need following this tragic incident."