Girl found dead in lorry cab named

(PA)

A nine-year-old girl who is believed to have been strangled by her mother's boyfriend before he dumped her body in the cab of his lorry has been named by police.

Stacey Lawrence was found dead in the cab of a white Spar lorry at the side of the A605 in Warmington, Northamptonshire, on Saturday afternoon.

The body of her mother's boyfriend, 40-year-old Darren Walker, was found hanging from a tree in nearby woodland, Northamptonshire Police said.

Detectives said they believe Stacey was murdered by Walker before he hanged himself.

Detective Chief Inspector Tricia Kirk said police now had more details about the journey Walker made with Stacey, who is from the West Midlands area.

She said: "It (the lorry) will have spent a great deal of time in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire during daylight hours, particularly on the A47, so I'm hopeful we will get some good information about its movements during the day.

"We have got no evidence at this time to indicate that Stacey was sexually assaulted.

"While our investigation is still at an early stage, it is clearly something we would like to rule out as quickly as possible."

Police said Walker was also from the West Midlands.

After leaving its depot in Willenhall in the West Midlands at 4am on Friday, the lorry headed straight for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. After making deliveries to Spar stores in the county, it was returning to the West Midlands, when it stopped just outside Peterborough at about 3pm on Friday. It arrived in the lay-by in nearby Warmington shortly after 3.35pm.