Killing of Leah Croucher

On the morning of 15 February 2019, 19-year-old Leah Croucher left her home on Quantock Crescent in the Emerson Valley area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, to walk roughly two miles to her workplace at a direct debit collection agency in Knowlhill. She did not arrive for her 9:00 shift and was reported missing by her parents that evening. CCTV captured her at 08:16 on Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, walking toward her workplace, and someone matching her description was seen nearby around 08:20. Her mobile phone left the network at approximately 08:34 and never reconnected. Three separate witnesses later reported seeing a person matching her description near Furzton Lake between 09:30 and 11:15, appearing visibly upset while on the phone, though police did not confirm these sightings were of Croucher.

Thames Valley Police mounted an extensive search, including searches of Furzton Lake and the Blue Lagoon Local Nature Reserve following a report of clothing matching Croucher's. Officers visited more than 4,000 homes during door-to-door inquiries, including 2 Loxbeare Drive in Furzton on at least two occasions, though there was no answer either time. Specialist search teams, drones, helicopters, marine units and dive teams were deployed, but nothing was recovered. On the anniversary of her disappearance, a reward for information was doubled to £10,000.

On 10 October 2022, Croucher's rucksack and personal possessions were discovered at 2 Loxbeare Drive, less than a mile from her home, after a handyman was sent to investigate a foul smell in the property. Her remains were found concealed in plastic bags in the attic space. Thames Valley Police announced a murder inquiry, and on 14 October a police spokesperson named Neil Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, as the prime suspect. Maxwell had been employed to maintain the Loxbeare Drive property and was the only person with access to the house at the relevant time; the property's owners lived overseas and were not in the UK when Croucher went missing. Maxwell had hanged himself in April 2019, two months after her disappearance, in a bike shed at Mainstay Court near Campbell Park, roughly 2.5 miles from the property.

In June 2024, an inquest concluded that Croucher had been unlawfully killed on or around 15 February 2019 by Neil Maxwell, probably during an "unwarranted sex attack." The precise cause of her death could not be determined. Her disappearance had earlier been the subject of a September 2019 episode of Crimewatch Live, which included an interview with her mother.