Bone belongs to a missing cadet

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/shropshire/6449143.stm

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A thigh bone found in a river in the Alps is that of an officer cadet who went missing nearly three years ago.

Blake Hartley's mother, Sally Perrin, said it had been confirmed to her the remains, found at the end of last year, were those of her son.

Mr Hartley, 25, from Cound in Shropshire, went missing in August 2004 while on exercise in Chamonix.

Mrs Perrin said it was not the answer she wanted but thanked everyone who helped search for her son.

'Desperately unhappy

She said: "Obviously we're all feeling extremely sad and desperately unhappy about it.

"We'd much have preferred Blake to have walked through the door at some point."

Mr Hartley's old school friends from Ellesmere College went out to France to help search for him and psychic Dennis McKenzie, who was asked to help in the Soham murders case, also helped.

Mr Hartley, a graduate of Reading University, had been on a training trip near Mont Blanc with Sandhurst Military Academy colleagues, when he went missing.

The thigh bone was found in the River L'Arve at the end of December 2006.