POLICE investigating the murder of a woman found in woods at Wooburn Common, Bucks, say she may have been killed elsewhere before her body was dumped.

The murder victim, who was repeatedly beaten around the head and set on fire, was probably killed outside the area, detectives have said.

The grisly find has sparked an investigation into how her killers transported the body to the woods, before setting it on fire and dumping it 30 metres from a lay-by.

Detectives, speaking at a press conference yesterday, say they are interested to hear from anyone who saw a dark van in the area, particularly if it was spotted in the vicinity of the lay-by in Hedsor Lane, near where the body was found.

Connor Dedan, a security guard at Dropmore Estate, said he saw a dark van passing back and forward in front of the iron gates at around lunchtime on Saturday.

He said: "I saw it go past four times then park up.

"My friend went down to the van on his quad bike but there was no one in it and the doors were wide open.

"Two minutes later when I joined him the van had gone."

Detective Superintendent Andy Taylor told the press conference on Monday: "There have been a number of mentions of a dark van being in the vicinity but we have no positive leads on that yet.

"We know there is some work going on in the area and they have a dark coloured van too, but we think this could be a different van."

The focus of the investigation however, is to identify the body.

At this point there is a local bias and a team of 30 detectives are working closely with neighbouring forces.

Det Supt Taylor said: "We have dealt with cases like this before where the victim was killed and later burned. They key to solving this is to identify the body."

The killer was trying to disguise the victim when they set fire to the body, Det Supt Taylor said.

The body was so severely burned, they have not been able to give her a positive ID.

Their best lead is a gold patterned ring she was wearing and a tattoo of a winged horse on her arm.

Det Supt Taylor said: "She is probably white but because of the effect of the fire I want to include a more olive complexion too and we would not wish to exclude the possibility the victim was from Eastern Europe either."

He said she had probably gone missing sometime between Thursday and Saturday.

They are investigating the national missing persons' register.

He repeated: "An identity is crucial to this investigation.

"I think we are dealing with someone that knew the victim.

"The attempt to burn the body was to disguise the victim.

"It is just hypothesis, but it is a good one."

Experts from the national crime faculty will be carrying out geographic profiling in the next few days.

Det Supt Taylor said crimes in High Wycombe are often overlooked.