FORENSIC tests are due to take place today on the human remains found in woods at Redmarley – as Kate Prout's family braced themselves.
Detectives last night said they hoped the discovery was "the final chapter" in the investigation to find the body of the 55-year-old farmer's wife.
Just over four years to the day that the case escalated from a missing person search to a murder investigation, Gloucestershire Constabulary believe they found what Kate's family had begged her killer for – the location of her body.
"We have found human remains close to the location Adrian Prout identified as the place he buried his wife," said Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, leading the investigation.
"No formal identification has taken place, however we have informed Kate's family of recent developments. I hope this will mark the final chapter of these harrowing events for Kate's family."
This week, using diggers, forensic archaeologists, a deposition expert and cadaver dogs, officers pinpointed where the remains lay in a 10x20 metre area outlined by Prout.
Police were keen to remove the remains last night.
The detective who originally led the inquiry, Acting Detective Superintendent Neil Kelly, retired after the trial, but he returned to the scene yesterday.
Prout, 49, who had always denied his wife's murder, confessed last Thursday.
The next morning he was taken from Garth prison in Lancashire where he is serving a minimum of 18 years in jail, to his former home.
In woodland, neighbouring the 276 acre farm, which he and his wife had fought over amid an acrimonious divorce, he showed detectives where he believed he had buried her.
He was questioned again this week.
Police are understood to have been told he strangled her, wrapped up her body and buried her in a pheasant enclosure on Bonfire Night 2007 following a row over how their £1.2million Redhill Farm home would be split.
But he didn't report her missing until November 10, and even ran a pheasant shoot at the farm two days after he had buried her.
Police initially treated her disappearance as a missing persons case but she took no valuables, nor her car, and no money.
For five weeks officers searched the farm and surrounding area – at the height of the investigation more than 100 officers searched arable land, a pond, a reservoir and the woodland where the remains were located yesterday.
Undeterred by drawing a blank, they pressed ahead with a "no body" murder prosecution, thanks to a welter of circumstantial evidence based on diary entries chronicling a bitter divorce and a violent marriage.
Prout was jailed in February 2010 – for three years more than he would have been sentenced to, had he revealed where his wife's body lay.
Convinced of his innocence, his fiancee Debbie Garlick pressed for him to take a lie detector test. In August he reluctantly took the test, and failed.
Last year Mrs Prout's brother Richard Wakefield appealed in The Citizen for her killer to reveal where she was, and told of how his family had been hurt by Mrs Garlick questioning court evidence and giving credence to claims she could still be alive.
He said: "We would like to know where she is, bring her back and give her a proper burial, to put her at rest. It's more important than anything."
Yesterday Mr Wakefield said he would prefer not to comment.
Detectives last night said they hoped the discovery was "the final chapter" in the investigation to find the body of the 55-year-old farmer's wife.
Officers hunting Cobhill Rough, Redmarley, found the remains close to where killer husband Adrian Prout said he had buried Kate following his prison cell confession last week.
Just over four years to the day that the case escalated from a missing person search to a murder investigation, Gloucestershire Constabulary believe they found what Kate's family had begged her killer for – the location of her body.
"We have found human remains close to the location Adrian Prout identified as the place he buried his wife," said Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, leading the investigation.
"No formal identification has taken place, however we have informed Kate's family of recent developments. I hope this will mark the final chapter of these harrowing events for Kate's family."
This week, using diggers, forensic archaeologists, a deposition expert and cadaver dogs, officers pinpointed where the remains lay in a 10x20 metre area outlined by Prout.
Police were keen to remove the remains last night.
The detective who originally led the inquiry, Acting Detective Superintendent Neil Kelly, retired after the trial, but he returned to the scene yesterday.
Prout, 49, who had always denied his wife's murder, confessed last Thursday.
The next morning he was taken from Garth prison in Lancashire where he is serving a minimum of 18 years in jail, to his former home.
In woodland, neighbouring the 276 acre farm, which he and his wife had fought over amid an acrimonious divorce, he showed detectives where he believed he had buried her.
He was questioned again this week.
Police are understood to have been told he strangled her, wrapped up her body and buried her in a pheasant enclosure on Bonfire Night 2007 following a row over how their £1.2million Redhill Farm home would be split.
But he didn't report her missing until November 10, and even ran a pheasant shoot at the farm two days after he had buried her.
Police initially treated her disappearance as a missing persons case but she took no valuables, nor her car, and no money.
For five weeks officers searched the farm and surrounding area – at the height of the investigation more than 100 officers searched arable land, a pond, a reservoir and the woodland where the remains were located yesterday.
Undeterred by drawing a blank, they pressed ahead with a "no body" murder prosecution, thanks to a welter of circumstantial evidence based on diary entries chronicling a bitter divorce and a violent marriage.
Prout was jailed in February 2010 – for three years more than he would have been sentenced to, had he revealed where his wife's body lay.
Convinced of his innocence, his fiancee Debbie Garlick pressed for him to take a lie detector test. In August he reluctantly took the test, and failed.
Last year Mrs Prout's brother Richard Wakefield appealed in The Citizen for her killer to reveal where she was, and told of how his family had been hurt by Mrs Garlick questioning court evidence and giving credence to claims she could still be alive.
He said: "We would like to know where she is, bring her back and give her a proper burial, to put her at rest. It's more important than anything."
Yesterday Mr Wakefield said he would prefer not to comment.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Kate-Prout-murder-Human-remains-mark-final/story-13951640-detail/story.html
