NEIGHBOURS have spoken of their shock after a body was found in a garage behind Marlowe Avenue, Park North, on Thursday night.

Avon and Somerset Police cordoned off the area around the council lock-up and forensic investigators worked inside before the body was removed on a stretcher under the cover of darkness.

A police spokesman said the operation in Park North was connected to the murder investigation but said she could not confirm the exact location of the body for operational reasons.

The garage is at the end of a line of lock-ups in Clevedon Close, which is overlooked by homes in Marlowe Avenue and George Selman Gardens.

Residents in the area told the Adver that police arrived on Wednesday and officers in an unmarked vehicle parked up against the garage.

They said officers removed a car, a black Ford estate, from outside a house in the area later that day.

Residents said that the following day, police cordoned off the area at about 4pm and a forensic team put up a white tent outside at about 8pm before the body was removed at midnight.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said: “The private ambulance pulled up and they took a stretcher out of it.

“Then they went into the garage and came out with a body in a long black bag on the stretcher and they went off pretty sharpish.

“It is just horrible, it is not very nice at all.

“As far as we know, that body could have been there for weeks.

“We don’t know whether it has happened in this area or not, or whether it has been put there.”

A man, who also did not want to be named, said: “It is quite shocking really.

“There has never been anything like this around the area and it is a nice, quiet place.

“It is worrying really because if they have removed the body from there, how long has it been in the garage for?

“People have been walking around there and going in and out of their garages.”

Stephen Hayward, the Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator for the area, was asked by officers from the force’s major crime investigation team to write a four-page statement on the people who rent the garages.

Mr Hayward, 84, who has lived in Greeham Walk for 34 years and has six great-grandchildren, said: “On Thursday from lunchtime onwards there were forensic scientists in the garage on the corner wearing white suits and white boots.

“Someone told me they saw a body being taken out of there that night, so we can only assume it was the body of the man who was killed.”

“We are shocked of course. It is not the sort of thing you expect on your doorstep.

“Most of the people around here who have got these garages are elderly people and it must be a bit worrying for them to know that sort of thing is going on.

“This is a lovely quite area normally.

There is not a lot of crime around here, we don’t get robberies and stuff.

“We are all nice people and we all know each other.”

Murder investigation launched after pensioner went missing

THE discovery of a body, believed to that of pensioner Lloyd Samuels, in Swindon has sparked a murder investigation in the town.

Mr Samuels, 67, went missing from his Bristol home on May 16, and has not been seen since.

But, on Thursday night, police arrested a 48-year-old Swindon man on suspicion of the pensioner’s murder after a body was found in a car dumped behind homes on Marlowe Avenue in Park North.

Although Avon and Somerset Police have not yet confirmed the body is that of Mr Samuels, they have said they are no longer continuing with their missing person appeal and need no more information as to his whereabouts.

A force spokesman said that formal identification of the deceased should take place at some point today.

Mr Samuels was last seen by his family at his home in Sydney Row, Hotwells, Bristol, last month.

The retired painter and decorator’s mobile phone had been unused since the day he was last seen.

Four days later a police camera recorded his car, a red Renault Clio, in Chippenham but there had been no sign of the 67-year-old or his vehicle since then.

His family, working with the police, launched a missing persons appeal and used their local newspaper to try and glean information on his whereabouts.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: “During the course of Thursday evening, police officers from Avon and Somerset and Wiltshire recovered the body of a man in Swindon.

“Formal identification is yet to take place.

“This follows the discovery of a red Renault Clio in Swindon earlier in the day. The man arrested remains in police custody where questioning will continue.”

Anyone with information should contact Avon and Somerset Police on police on 0845 456 7000 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that the body in Park North was connected to the missing person incident, adding that the force was dealing with only one discovered body.