A body found on a beach near Plymouth has been confirmed as Bobbi-Anne McLeod, 18, who went missing on her way to meet friends, Devon and Cornwall police confirmed on Tuesday.
The teenager went missing on 20 November, and had been waiting to catch a bus into town after leaving home.
Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement: “Formal identification has now been completed and it has been confirmed that the body located in Bovisand on 23 November is that of 18-year-old Bobbi-Anne McLeod.
“Her family have been informed of this update and have asked for their privacy to be respected at this time.”
Police added in a statement shared on Twitter: “Whilst of course we understand the public interest in these updates, we remind the public that this is a live and active case and we ask members of the public to not speculate on social media.”
Cody Ackland, 24, has been charged with her murder and is currently remanded in custody. He is due to appear in court next on Monday 24 January.
Devon and Cornwall police said that there is no link between the suspect and victim at this time and are not seeking anyone else in relation to the matter.
Hundreds attended a vigil held for the teenager last week in Plymouth as mourners gathered around scores of flowers left in tribute to the 18-year-old on a grass verge opposite the bus stop where she went missing.
UK news in pictures
Show all 50
UK news in pictures
29 November 2021
Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana
Getty
UK news in pictures
28 November 2021
Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow
Manchester City/Getty
UK news in pictures
27 November 2021
Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as “Storm Arwen” triggered a rare “red weather” warning
AFP via Getty Images
UK news in pictures
26 November 2021
A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London
Reuters
UK news in pictures
25 November 2021
A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border
PA
UK news in pictures
24 November 2021
Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel.
AFP via Getty Images
UK news in pictures
23 November 2021
The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London
PA
UK news in pictures
22 November 2021
The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead
Tom Wren/SWNS
UK news in pictures
21 November 2021
London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a ‘March with Midwives’ in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services
PA
UK news in pictures
20 November 2021
Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London
AFP via Getty Images
UK news in pictures
19 November 2021
A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a ‘wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste’
PA
UK news in pictures
18 November 2021
The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke
PA
UK news in pictures
17 November 2021
The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England
PA
UK news in pictures
16 November 2021
ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh
PA
UK news in pictures
15 November 2021
Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool
Reuters
UK news in pictures
14 November 2021
Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London
PA
UK news in pictures
13 November 2021
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was “caught in a dispute between two states”
PA
UK news in pictures
12 November 2021
Peter Green protesting outside the Cop26 gates during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
PA
UK news in pictures
11 November 2021
Seagulls fly around the statue entitled ‘Tommy’, a first World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale at dawn in Seaham, Britain
Reuters
UK news in pictures
10 November 2021
Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game” protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow
Reuters
UK news in pictures
9 November 2021
A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland
Reuters
UK news in pictures
8 November 2021
Sunrise over St Mary’s Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England
PA
UK news in pictures
7 November 2021
Activists from Friends of the Earth during a demonstration calling for an end to all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea outside the UK Government’s Cop26 hub during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
PA
UK news in pictures
6 November 2021
Protesters take part in a rally organised by the Cop26 Coalition in Glasgow demanding global climate justice
PA
UK news in pictures
5 November 2021
Final touches are made to a life sized Sir David Attenborough cake surrounded by animals as part of a display created by a group of cake artists during Cake International at NEC Birmingham
PA
UK news in pictures
4 November 2021
A spectacular display of the Northern Lights seen over Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District
PA
UK news in pictures
3 November 2021
Police and demonstrators at a Extinction Rebellion protest on Buchanan Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
PA
UK news in pictures
2 November 2021
A person walks along the Basingstoke canal near to Dogmersfield in Hampshire
PA
UK news in pictures
1 November 2021
Sir David Attenborough delivers a speech during Cop26 in Glasgow
Reuters
UK news in pictures
31 October 2021
Extinction Rebellion activists protest in Edinburgh as the Cop26 conference begins in Glasgow
Getty
UK news in pictures
30 October 2021
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Mapuche leader and Minga Indigena Lead Coordinator Claflin Lafkenche (right) alongside indigenous delegates at a ceremonial gathering at the Tramway in Glasgow in a symbolic gesture to mark a unified demand for climate justice
PA
UK news in pictures
29 October 2021
Ocean Rebellion put on a display of puking oil heads ahead of climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow
EPA
UK news in pictures
28 October 2021
A man dressed as Santa Claus outside Selfridges in London as the department store unveils its Christmas windows on Oxford Street
PA
UK news in pictures
27 October 2021
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak during a visit to Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey, London, after the chancellor announced a cut to beer taxes in his budget
PA
UK news in pictures
26 October 2021
Activist Steve Bray demonstrates with a toilet outside the gates of Downing Street, after MPs voted in Parliament against the Environment Bill, allowing companies to pump raw sewage into UK rivers and seas, in London
Reuters
UK news in pictures
25 October 2021
Second World War veteran James White, 96, at the opening of the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance, marking the start of the remembrance period
PA
UK news in pictures
24 October 2021
Richard Ratcliffe holds up a photo of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as he protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran
Getty
UK news in pictures
23 October 2021
Partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Morris and Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson attend a protest ahead of the appeal hearing over Assange’s extradition, in London
Reuters
UK news in pictures
22 October 2021
Palace Gardener Justine Howlett adds the finishing touches to pumpkins bearing the face of Henry VIII and his wives, at Hampton Court Palace.
PA
UK news in pictures
21 October 2021
Flooded fields near Lingfield in Surrey, after southern England was hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds from Storm Aurore moving in from France
PA
UK news in pictures
20 October 2021
A wing surfer enjoys the strong winds as they surf in the sea off of Hayling Island in Hampshire
PA
UK news in pictures
19 October 2021
Actor Jude Law holds hands with Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, as it arrives in Folkestone, Kent, as part of the Handspring Puppet Company’s ‘The Walk’
PA
UK news in pictures
18 October 2021
A view over Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which is set to become a city in tribute to Sir David Amess MP, who spent years campaigning for the change
Getty
UK news in pictures
17 October 2021
Members of the Essex Bangladeshi Welfare Association pay their respects by floral tributes laid at the scene where Sir David Amess MP was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea
Reuters
UK news in pictures
16 October 2021
Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, Priti Patel and Lindsay Hoyle pay respects to Sir David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea, the site of his death
EPA
UK news in pictures
15 October 2021
A person lays flowers at the scene near the Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery. A man has been arrested and officers are not looking for anyone else
PA
UK news in pictures
14 October 2021
A red deer stag during rutting season in Bushy Park, Richmond, south west London, which is home to over 300 red and fallow deer
PA
UK news in pictures
13 October 2021
Police officers detain a man as Insulate Britain activists block a roundabout at a junction on the M25 motorway during a protest in Thurrock
Reuters
UK news in pictures
12 October 2021
The aerial climate installation by Swiss artivist Dan Acher ‘We Are Watching’ is unveiled at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh
PA
UK news in pictures
10 October 2021
A young girl is helped by a Border Force officer as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel.
PA
Speaking at her daugter’s vigil, Donna McLeod said: “Thank you for doing everything to try and find her and bring our baby home.
“I would like to thank everyone for coming, on behalf of the family. It’s nice everyone is coming together in the circumstances. Unfortunately, our beautiful Bobbi-Anne has been taken from us, but she will never be forgotten.
“I’d like everyone to hold their candles up. This is for Bobbi-Anne.”
Mr Ackland appeared at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Friday and spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth during the short hearing.
The defendant is the lead guitarist in Plymouth-based indy band Rakuda, who released their first EP in August this year.
The remaining Rakuda band members announced on Friday they would be disbanding “with immediate effect”.
In a post on the band’s Facebook page, they wrote: “The remaining members of Rakuda … are all extremely shocked and in complete disbelief by the tragic event that has unfolded over the last several days.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Bobbi-Anne McLeod’s family and friends who must be devastated at their loss.
“As a mark of respect, we have decided that we shall not be going forward as a band and will be disbanding with immediate effect. We will not be making any further comments at this time.”