Woman arrested after student's killing

Police yesterday arrested a woman in connection with the murder of student Rachael Lean, 18, whose body was found in undergrowth near a Norfolk RAF base on Sunday.

The 27-year-old woman, who has not been named by police, was being questioned last night. She is believed to live locally with her boyfriend. Miss Lean went missing last Tuesday after a fitness session at RAF Col- tishall, near Aylsham, where her father is based.

Yesterday a relative of the arrested woman said she had turned up at her parents' home in Bristol for the first time in six years, three days after Miss Lean went missing. She said she had come to see her mother who suffered a stroke four weeks ago.

Miss Lean, who was due to start an English degree at Southampton University next week, disappeared between Coltishall and her father's home in Buxton, one-and-a-half miles away. Her mother Vanessa, 40, contacted the police after her daughter failed to meet her there for a dinner as arranged. She said Miss Lean, a keep fit fanatic who regularly worked out at the air base, was very methodical and her failure to keep the appointment was out of character.

A girl is reported to have told police that she saw Miss Lean before she left the base and that she intended to walk home.

After helicopter and foot searches, officers eventually found Miss Lean's body near the base's perimeter fence. Her parents, her brother Steven, 17, and her boyfriend Robin Rischmiller, 22, had joined the search.

Yesterday a post mortem examination was being carried out. Miss Lean's family was being comforted by police and were too upset to talk.

Mrs Lean and her husband Peter, 43, are separated. Rachael Lean and her brother lived with their father. Their mother lives nearby. Mr Lean was flown home from Italy on Wednesday where he was serving with the UN's Bosnia peace-keeping force.