Boy and his grandmother found dead in pond

A woman aged 71 and her six-year-old grandson have been found dead in a pond, police said yesterday.

The discoveries followed a search on land and by RAF helicopter at Holywell village, near Castle Bytham, Lincolnshire.

The alarm was raised by the boy's mother, thought to live in Ketton, Leicestershire, after he went to stay with his grandmother on Wednesday night and did not return home the next day.

Officers found the old woman's car close to a duck pond in Holywell village on Thursday night. Soon afterwards the body of a woman was recovered from the pond.

The search continued into the night for the boy and just before 4am an underwater search unit recovered the body of a child from the pond.

Police said post-mortems are being carried out and formal identifications will not be concluded until Monday.

The pensioner's cleaner, Hilary Barnsdale, 59, described her "great friend" as an "outgoing, bubbly and independent woman".

She said she had seen the car by the pond and assumed they were feeding the ducks.