A 24-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a Filipina model who was found dead in River Severn in Worcester.
Charles Byrne, 24, was charged with murder and attempted murder after the body of the woman, named locally as Christina Rowe, was found in Worcester, West Mercia police said on Thursday night.
The model was last seen on Monday receiving a parcel from a postman and is said to have been ‘really chipper and happy’. On Wednesday night January 10, she was pulled from the icy waters.
Byrne has been remanded in custody and will appear at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Dean Jones said earlier: ‘Unfortunately, we have located the body of a woman in her 20s in the River Severn during our searches last night.’
He added: ‘Her family has been informed, but formal identification has not yet taken place. A 24-year-old man was arrested yesterday and remains in police custody.
‘This is an isolated incident and I can confirm that we are not looking for anybody else in connection with the incident.’
Cops yesterday cordoned off three locations in the smart town. One was a home belonging to Christina, who is understood to have lived there for a year.
One neighbour living opposite the police cordon said: ‘For nobody to hear anything is quite unusual.
‘We have lived her for years and just keep ourselves to ourselves so don’t really know anyone in the street.’
Another neighbour said: ‘You see this sort of stuff on the TV not from your living room window – it’s all so surreal.
‘I’ve seen her around here. I didn’t know her by name but she seemed nice. She was very quiet and I think had only lived here for around a year.
‘I asked the postman who delivered her post when the last time he had seen her was and he said on Monday when he gave her a parcel.
‘Apparently, she was really chipper and happy and had a smile on her face and that was only Monday.
‘I think she did have a boyfriend as I’d seen a guy around here a few times.
‘My daughter actually phoned me as she thought there was a Covid outbreak in the close but when I got in from work I realised this definitely wasn’t that and something much worse had happened.
‘It’s a very quiet close though not a lot happens and everyone keeps themselves to themselves.
‘As I said I’d seen her around a bit and she always seemed nice and friendly she was just quiet but you’re allowed to be quiet.’
A woman who lives a few doors away from the cordon said: ‘I live in the other close and I had the police knock at my door asking if I’d seen anything.
‘All they told me was that she had definitely been murdered here. I think it’s the house behind the trees in the close. All they could say was it happened here but couldn’t tell me any more than that.
‘It’s a very quiet close and all privately owned. There are a few council house but the rest of it is private. The houses are all usually quiet and there’s never any trouble.
‘This is all out of the blue for us stuff like this doesn’t happen around here. It’s a very peaceful place normally.’
Another resident living nearby said: ‘There were about 15 or 20 officers here yesterday, knocking on doors at around 8am asking if we’d seen anything.
‘I had noticed the outdoor motion lights at a house in the road kept flickering on and off at around 5am, a few hours before the police arrived.’
