LONDON - Police have launched a murder hunt after identifying a girl's body found on Monday as that of missing 8-year-old Sarah Payne, reports the BBC.
Her naked body was found in undergrowth in a field 10m from a busy road at Pulborough in West Sussex, 16km from where Sarah disappeared.
A post-mortem examination showed that Sarah died of unnatural causes.
One of the biggest manhunts ever seen in Britain was launched after the little girl disappeared on July 1.
Sarah and her brothers and sister had been playing in a wheatfield close to their grandparents' house where they were staying in West Sussex.
Since the inquiry began police have arrested two men and released them on bail.
They have also carried out tests on a white van removed from the home of one of the men arrested in connection with the investigation.
Police have also done DNA tests, using samples taken from Sarah's hairbrush.
The publicity the hunt for Sarah attracted was unprecedented. Every day newspapers and broadcasters carried appeals from both the police and the schoolgirl's parents, Michael and Sara.
"Don't give up," they said at what became almost daily press conferences. "We'll get you home."
And to whoever may have abducted the girl they called their "little princess," they pleaded to let her go unharmed.
- INDEPENDENT
British police hunt Sarah's killer
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