Police find body in hunt for woman

Police searching for a young woman in Hull discovered a body at a flat near her address yesterday afternoon, hours after starting to check private homes.

Two men who had allowed officers into the flat, in Nash Court on the Orchard Park estate, were arrested on suspicion of murdering Rachel Moran, 22, and taken to separate police stations.

The two-storey home was 400 yards from the one Ms Moran had shared with her boyfriend, Mark Shepherd, in Saxcourt and was identical in design. Between 80 and 100 police had started searching 300 homes on the estate. Humberside Police, who had never before made such a search, acted on advice from West Yorkshire Police, who used the rare method in their hunt for the Leeds teenager Leanne Tiernan after her disappearance in November, 2000. She had been murdered.

The Orchard Park estate was where Ms Moran was last seen alive, early on New Year's Day. She left her parents' home in Hall Road to walk the short distance home.

The body had not been identified late yesterday but her parents have been told.

Since Ms Moran's disappearance, all open areas and water courses within a mile radius of her last sighting have been searched. Her mobile phone, Irish passport and her left trainer, handbag and make-up were found in a ditch.

Ms Moran had spent New Year's Eve celebrating with her brother, John, at a pub. She had planned to spend the night at her parents' home but, after her boyfriend telephoned her to tell her he had gone to a party, she decided to walk home to feed her kittens.