Missing woman found dead in city centre after frantic 11-day search as police issue tragic update

The body of a 28-year-old woman from Nottingham has been found 11 days after she was reported missing.

Holly Whittaker was last seen in the Mapperley area of Nottingham on September 4, with a frantic police search launched.

On Tuesday afternoon, officers found the body of a woman near Queen's Road in Nottingham city centre.

The woman has since been formally identified as Ms Whittaker.

Det Ch Insp Claire Gould, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Our specially trained officers are supporting Holly's family at this difficult time, following yesterday's tragic development.

"While the circumstances are still being investigated, at this time, we are not treating her death as suspicious.

"We would like to thank everyone who came forward with any information or shared our public appeals since Holly was first reported missing.

"A file will now be prepared for the coroner as our investigations continue."

Holly's family had desperately appealed for information during the search, hoping she would return home safely.

Sadly, the search ended in tragedy.

Her mother, Angela Whittaker, wrote in a post on Facebook: "Thank you for all your love over our loss of Holly.

"We are just devestated and appreciate all the messages even if we cant respond to them all right now.

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"I am so grateful to everyone of you who shared our posts."

The mother thanked Robert Jones, who made a "beautiful" video of Holly set to Taylor Swift's The Best Day, which she described as "mine and Holly's song".

"We used to play it coming back from horse riding and going for drives and just playing music and singing when she was stressed. Such a kind thing to do for a stranger and very talented", Mrs Whittaker wrote.

The tragic discovery occurred on the same day as the body of 3-year-old Noah Wood was discovered in a pond in Brantham, Suffolk, after he disappeared from a playground.

Noah was last seen at around 3pm on Tuesday after visiting the playground in the town's Merriam Close.

After an extensive search by specialist diving teams, fire and rescue services and hundreds of volunteers, police confirmed a body has was found yesterday afternoon.

CCTV footage captured Noah in the playground, before running down an alleyway in the direction of Decoy Fishing Pond where the body was recovered.

More than 1,000 volunteers had descended on the village to help look for the toddler, who had been in the care of a relative at the time of his disappearance, believed to have been his grandfather.