'Face' of mystery woman found dead in woods who was never reported missing

This is what a mystery woman who was found dead in a wood 23 years ago might have looked like.

The computer generated image was created after police were unable to identify the decaying remains of a body discovered by ramblers near Ruislip, West London, on December 15, 2002. She is thought to have been in her 20s or 30s, had perfect teeth and was wearing a £120 bra made by a company which supplied underwear to Queen Elizabeth II.

Her body, found in an area known as Mad Bess Wood, was so decomposed police could not tell if she was murdered, had killed herself or died of natural causes. As far as police are aware, no one has ever reported her missing.

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Retired detective Karen Hunt is now making a renewed appeal for information. Ms Hunt, who worked on the case at the time while a Met DC, said: "As former officers we are getting older and she died during our policing careers and as a tribute to her we are making one last effort to try to identify her.

"As a professional detective you deal with dozens of deaths, homicides and others, but this is one that has always stayed with me. There was no evidence she had been buried so we wondered if she had overdosed but she did not appear to be a drug addict.

"She had no keys and nothing identifying her. There were buses to the spot or other public transport so how did she get there? I think someone's got away with murder."

The remains are believed to have been lying in the woods for around six weeks before they were found. Analysis of her bones indicated the woman was born in the north of England.

She was wearing beige Regatta trousers (34in waist, 33in inside leg), a dark blue Levi jacket, blue Nike walking socks and brown walking boots, size six to eight. Named "Lilly" by Karen's colleague Brian Hook, she was 5ft 10in and white with short, dark brown hair.

She was also wearing a 34E bra from the exclusive Rigby and Peller range, a London firm that provided underwear for Queen Elizabeth II. The woman was not wearing any jewellery, and had no money, keys or identification on her.

Syringes marked "insulin" were found near the body, and binoculars in a case some distance away.

Mr Hook, who now uses the case to train officers at the University of West London, said: "It has lived with me and Karen. A large amount of work was put into identifying her. I personally think that she was murdered in part because of the location of her remains close to a road in an isolated location."

Earlier this year, The Mirror teamed up with the charity Missing People to launch the Missed campaign, raising awareness of every publicly-listed missing person in the UK.

Det Chief Insp Green said at the time: "We are considering two possibilities. The first she was murdered, the second is she took her own life. There are no obvious signs to tell either way. She didn't hang herself or slash her wrists. She didn't take an overdose. There was no trace of drugs in her system.

"The syringes are a real mystery. We thought she might have been a diabetic who overdosed on insulin. But most diabetics don't use the syringe method any more and the needles were never used.

"So what were they doing there? If it was a murder, were they some sort of message left by the killer?

"Looking towards the sinister side, she could have been strangled or even stabbed. But because she had been there for around six weeks, the decomposition means you can't tell for sure. It could be that she was murdered and the killer removed everything from her to prevent us knowing who she was."

An inquest returned an open verdict. Karen and Brian were among a handful of officers who attended the woman's funeral at Hillingdon cemetery.