Human remains found in village ‘may be father who vanished in 2007'
The mother of a man who went missing in 2007 has said she is 'hoping for some peace' after human remains were found in a Cambridgeshire village close to where he disappeared.
Terry McSpadden, a 24-year-old father of two, was last seen on March 2 that year after spending the evening in the Locomotive pub in Wisbech, near the border with Norfolk.
On Sunday morning, police were called to Lynn Road in Wisbech after partial human remains were found by a passer-by.
A Norfolk Constabulary spokesman said: 'Officers are exploring a number of lines of inquiry. The cordon is still in place on Lynn Road and will remain for some time.'
Helen Thrower, Mr McSpadden's mother, confirmed that police had contacted the family about the find.
She said: 'It's too early to say whether it's Terry or not. Me and other people whose family members are missing, we're hoping for some peace. Until we get some identification, we can't know.'
Cold case detectives launched a fresh appeal for information about Mr McSpadden's disappearance, which was initially treated as a missing persons case but was later considered a murder, in February this year.
Mr McSpadden's body was never found and his hand-painted black mountain bike was never recovered.
A man was charged with murder in 2011, but the case against him was dismissed in court.
Later reviews of the case and a 2014 CrimeStoppers appeal with a £5,000 reward did not generate further significant information.
Andy Guy, Norfolk Constabulary's cold case manager, said about the fresh appeal: 'Terry's family, including his mother and two children, have never had closure. They have no idea of where he is, what happened to him, or why. They have lived with this grief and uncertainty for 18 years.
'While this is a long time ago, I have no doubt there are people out there who do know, or suspect, what happened to Terry.
'I understand that people may not have wished to engage with the police in 2007, but having knowledge of what happened to Terry may lay heavy on someone's conscience, and for Terry, his mother, and children, now would be the time to disclose that information.
'Terry was an attentive and loving father, which makes any hypothesis that he simply upped and left the area all the more unlikely, and there has been no proof of life after March 2 2007.'
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