A body has been found following a search for Laurel Aldridge, 62, missing from Walberton since February 14.
Sussex Police announced on Saturday:
“Sadly the body of a woman has been found in the Tortington Lane area of Arundel.
“At this stage, the family of missing Laurel Aldridge have been informed and we are seeking to confirm the identity of the woman.”
Matthew Aldridge, Laurel's son, also took to Facebook to announce she'd been found:
"After a long and exhausting search, today we found Laurel. We can share that she was found lying in a beautiful woodland and she is now at peace.
"We will miss her every day, but we are so proud of everything she achieved in her 62 years on this earth. Laurel was a wonderful, creative, fiercely-intelligent person, who taught us all the meaning of empathy, dependability, and love.
"We as a family are broken by what has happened, but we have each other, we have our friends, and we have the support of the local community, who have so kindly rallied around us during this difficult time. We will never forget what you have done for us.
"For the time being, we are asking for privacy so that we can be together as a family and process our loss."
Laurel was the sister-in-law of actor Mackenzie Crook, who had also been making public appeals, including on ITV's Good Morning Britain to ask for help in finding her.
The local community is joining in the search, Crook had said.
"A lot of people are looking in the local woodlands along the roads and stuff like that," he told ITV.
"If I could appeal to everyone. Even if they checked before, check again in likely places where she might have crept in to lay down for the night."
Describing his sister-in-law's disappearance as "very out of character", he added that she had missed a chemotherapy session on the day she went missing.
Speaking to the BBC, he said:
“It is terrible, it’s like a nightmare, in a way we’re waiting to wake up from it but we’ve got each other and we’ve received a lot of love and support from the wider community and that’s really helping us get through.”
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