Update: Clues suggest Wenhaston body is that of missing teenager Miller Redpath

Miller Redpath of Wenhaston who has been missing since mid-August (Image: Archant)

Police are this morning still at the 18-year-old’s family home in Wenhaston, where a body was found earlier this week.

The body was removed from the property and a Home Office postmortem examination, held yesterday, concluded that the cause of death was unascertained. At this stage the death is still being treated as unexplained.

Officers have not yet been able to identify the body and further tests are required, however early indications suggest that it is the body of 18-year-old Miller Redpath.

Yesterday, it was revealed that police visited the home of a missing teenager on two occasions before a body was found in the overgrown back garden.

Miller Redpath had not been seen since August 13 by his widowed mother, Anastasia Miller, who went to wake him on the morning of a Christian sunrise service they had agreed to attend together at Southwold beach but found him ‘grumpy’ and left him in bed.

Three days later, on August 16, police responded to a report of a crime at the address but did not find Miller. A second visit was made at the beginning of October and a search of the property was carried out. He was then formally reported missing by Mrs Miller on October 15.

Yesterday - eight days after the official search was launched - an officer attended the home address as part of the inquiries into his disappearance. While searching the property, at about 1.10pm, a body was found in an overgrown rear garden.

As a matter of course, the matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) - a mandatory requirement if there is a death or serious injury following direct or indirect police contact.

Detectives have yet to formally identify the decomposed body, discovered at about 1.10pm yesterday at an address in Wenhaston, near Halesworth.

The home was sealed off as officers investigated the circumstances around the death, which is still being treated as “unexplained”.

Eighteen-year-old Miller disappeared on August 13, and public appeals have been made this month to trace him.

Last week, his concerned mother Anastasia Miller made an impassioned plea to her son through the EADT. She said: “I’m really worried about your safety and wellbeing and I just hope that everything’s okay.

“If you’re in trouble in any way, just remember there’s very little that can’t be sorted out with some good will, negotiation and a humble heart. You’re certainly not in any trouble with me, I just need you to get in touch.”

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said last night: “An officer attended an address in Wenhaston at approximately 1.10pm on Thursday and a person’s body was found in an overgrown rear garden. As is standard procedure the death will be treated as unexplained at this stage.

“An investigation will now take place to establish the circumstances surrounding the deceased person’s death and to try to establish their identity.”

The property was sealed off and forensic teams were seen working there yesterday afternoon.

Mrs Miller said last week she and Miller had spent the weekend together before his disappearance and on the morning he was last seen, August 13, they had agreed to attend a sunrise service at Southwold beach.

However the teenager was “grumpy” when she went to wake him and so she went alone. That was the last she saw him.

The widowed mother-of-one was not immediately concerned about Miller’s absence as he had a habit of making unannounced departures. But two days later, she started to worry.

“I realised he hadn’t taken his phone charger, his passport, any money, bank cards or his jacket and thought it was almost as if he intended to come back shortly but that something had gone horribly wrong,” she said last week.

Anyone with information should call Halesworth police station on 101.