COLD case murder cops are staying tight lipped over whether last week’s fingertip search of a Cinderford flat produced any evidence.

Lancashire Police detectives investigating the 2002 killing of Swindon man Darren Carley ripped apart the ground floor flat in Miners Walk, Cinderford, and examined their finds in a scene of crime tent erected on a shared lawn.

The 24-year-old went missing over 17 years ago from the Wiltshire home he shared with his mother, and was last seen shortly after midnight on January 25.

His body was found by a dog walker nearly 200 miles away six months later, just yards from the M6 motorway near Preston, but was only identified in 2017 after DNA advances.

Detectives, who said he had sustained ‘traumatic head injuries’, relaunched their murder inquiry last year and arrested a 50-year-old Gloucestershire man and a 36-year-old Worcester woman in October. They are currently on bail pending further investigations.

Shortly after Mr Carley’s disappearance, police reportedly established that he had phone links with Cinderford.

Shocked residents watched as murder police arrived at the Forest housing association flat on Monday, March 4, to begin their forensic search.

Officers in white overalls and wearing masks were seen entering and exiting No 9, Miners Walk, which was vacated by the current occupants to allow the search to take place.

Trays of material taken from the flat were sifted through in the tent, while items such as skirting boards were placed in a skip in the communal car park.

Residents reported hearing extractor fans operating in the flat and the sound of heavy drilling, while all the windows were covered in plastic sheeting.

After finishing the search at the end of the week, a Lancashire Police spokesperson said: “We would like to thank the local community, the occupants of the property and the housing association for their patience and understanding while we conducted our work.”

They had previously said the search had nothing to do with the current occupants who were moved into temporary accommodation prior to it taking place.

Darren Carley’s body was found in a pond by a woman dog walker in a field off Back Lane, Charnock Richard, close to Charnock Richard Services on the M6.

A clay model of the face was constructed by experts at Manchester University in a bid to identify him and investigations stretched as far as India after it was thought he could have been Asian, with appeals issued in Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati and Hindi.

But police were finally able to identify him after advances in DNA testing, and his body was exhumed from Chorley Cemetry and returned to his family in Wiltshire for reburial.

Mr Carley went missing shortly after splitting up with his girlfriend who he had been living with in Birmingham.

His mother Barbara, who is in her 80s, said after her son had finally been identified: “At last, I don’t have to worry about him. The long wait for answers is over. There is, at last, some closure.”