RESIDENTS were shocked when police descended on a quiet Forest cul-de-sac as part of a cold case murder investigation.

Lancashire Police forensics officers erected a tent on a communal lawn on a Cinderford estate on Monday and are currently searching the inside of a flat in Miners Walk.

A force spokesman said they are probing the murder of Darren Carley from Swindon, who disappeared in January 2002, and whose skeleton was discovered in a farmland pond six months later in Charnock Richard near Preston, nearly 200 miles north of his home.

The 24-year-old had suffered ‘traumatic head injuries’, but was only identified in 2017 after advances in DNA testing.

A fresh appeal for information about his murder was launched last October, and a 50-year-old man from Gloucestershire and a 36-year-old woman from Worcester were arrested and subsequently bailed pending further investigations.

Lancashire Police said: “Police investigating the murder of Darren Carley are searching an address on Miners Walk in Cinderford.

“This area has been secured by officers from Lancashire Constabulary and the cordon is likely to be in place for a number of days. It is expected to cause minimal disruption to the local community.

“The current occupants are not linked to the investigation and temporary accommodation has been sourced for them. We are grateful for their cooperation.

“Human remains were found on farmland in Charnock Richard, near Chorley, on July 26, 2002. This sparked a major investigation; however, the identity of the man remained unknown for 15 years.

“In 2017, advances in DNA allowed police to identify the body as Darren Carley who went missing from his home in Swindon in January 2002.

“Following the identification, a fresh appeal for information about Darren’s murder was launched in October, 2018.

“A 50-year-old man from Gloucestershire and a 36-year-old wo-man from Worcester were arrested on October 16, 2018, on suspicion of murder. They were later released under investigation.”

Officers wearing boiler suits were seen entering and leaving No 9, Miners Walk, yesterday, carrying hammers and trays of debris to apparently sift through in the tent alongside.

Darren Carley was last seen more than 17 years ago at his family’s Swindon home, shortly after midnight on January 25, 2002.

He was believed to be wearing white tracksuit bottoms with black stripes, a burnt orange fleece and white trainers and is not thought to have had any more clothes with him when he disappeared.

Cinderford phone numbers were reportedly later discovered on the family phone.

His body was found in a pond by a woman dog walker in a field off Back Lane, Charnock Richard, yards from the M6 motorway which the road crosses and close to Charnock Richard Services.

A clay model of the face was constructed in a bid to identify the body 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 finally identified Darren two years ago after advances in DNA testing, and his body was exhumed from Chorley Cemetry and returned to his family in Wiltshire for reburial.

Det Supt Mick Turner said during the early years of the investigation: “There are a number of reasons why I believe this man was murdered. There was no clothing at the scene, no vehicle abandoned nearby, no personal effects on the body, and it appeared to have been deliberately secreted.

“Given all this, there really is no other viable explanation.”

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

He was thought to have been unemployed and not claiming benefits.

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.”