CCTV footage of the last time a schoolgirl strangled by her mother's boyfriend was seen alive has been released by police.
The body of nine-year-old Stacey Lawrence was found on Saturday in the cab of a white Spar lorry parked in a lay-by in Warmington, Northamptonshire.
She had been on a delivery run with her mother's partner Darren Walker. It is thought Walker, 40, strangled the schoolgirl, then hanged himself in nearby woodland.
Northamptonshire Police released CCTV images of the pair at a services on the A47 in Peterborough just before 3pm on Friday. It is believed they made a short stop before going on to Warmington, where Stacey was murdered on Friday evening.
The footage shows the white lorry, which had been making deliveries across Norfolk all day, arriving at the services.
Stacey, wearing a pink t-shirt, is then seen to push both doors of the shop open as she walks in with her mother's partner. As the pair wander the aisles together there is no hint of the tragic events that would follow later that evening.
The pictures fit in with the schoolgirl's mother's description of her last conversation with Walker on Friday night, which she said was perfectly normal.
On Tuesday Detective Chief Inspector Tricia Kirk said Roxanne Lawrence heard her daughter in the background as she spoke to her partner.
She said: "She heard Stacey talking in the background because she was watching a programme that she particularly liked. She doesn't describe there being any indication that there was anything wrong. It was just a normal conversation."
On Tuesday police revealed they could not rule out there had been some sexual touching, but no sexual assault, involved in the run-up to the schoolgirl's death.
