Kate Garraway fought back tears as she clutched the grieving mother of a teenage MURD3R victim in a heart-wrenching Good Morning Britain interview. 

During the emotional segment on Friday’s episode, the host, 57, and her co-star Adil Ray, 50, spoke with John and Claire, the parents of Leah Croucher.

Leah was found dead in the loft of a house on October 10, 2022 – almost four years after her disappearance on February 15, 2019, while walking to work in Furzton, Milton Keynes.

Her parents spoke about their ‘torture’ after police blunders prolonged their agony, and their son, Haydon, took his own life after struggling to cope with his sister’s disappearance.

Kate, who lost her husband Derek Draper earlier this year, asked Claire and John ‘how they cope’ with grief admitting that she ‘feels like that myself.’

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Kate Garraway fought back tears as she clutched the grieving mother of a teenage MURD3R victim in a heart-wrenching Good Morning Britain interview

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During the emotional segment on Friday’s episode, the host, 57, and her co-star Adil Ray, 50, spoke with John and Claire, the parents of Leah Croucher

Claire said: ‘We put grief on hold for a little while because we had so much to do in the meantime. We are still grieving every day. We still miss her.

‘We are very frustrated by the entire system. Getting to the inquest process took an year and a half and it felt like an extremely long time.’

Kate added: ‘It’s hard to fathom how you both are managing with this grief. Is there a way you remember Leah or you think about Haydon that helps you?

As Claire began wiping away tears, Kate reached for a box of tissues before tearing up and bringing her and John in for a hug.

Oh goodness me. We are all in … I feel like that myself,’ she admitted.

During the search for the teenager, officers told parents John and Claire Croucher that they had found a human scalp, which later turned out to be horse’s mane, and mistook a severed foot for that of Leah.

John had previously said that Leah was ‘severely let down’ by police and probation services after a coroner concluded that Leah was MURD3Red’ by Neil Maxwell following a series of failures by the authorities.

Leah’s body was found in October 2022 in an empty property in Milton Keynes where Maxwell, 49, had worked as a handyman. He killed himself in a bike shed two months after killing Leah.

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Leah was found dead in the loft of a house on October 10, 2022 – almost four years after her disappearance on February 15, 2019. Her parents spoke about their ‘torture’ after police blunders prolonged their agony

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As Claire began wiping away tears, Kate reached for a box of tissues before tearing up and bringing them both in for a hug

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John had previously said that Leah was ‘severely let down’ by police and probation services after a coroner concluded that Leah was ‘MURD3Red’ by Neil Maxwell following a series of failures by the authorities

Maxwell had a ‘predilection for young females’ and was being hunted by police at the time Leah went missing. Officers even had a tip off about Maxwell but concluded there was no link between him and Leah.

At an inquest into Leah’s death held in June, John called on the system of managing sexual offenders to be improved so that appropriate and accurate information sharing takes place.

The coroner concluded that Leah had died on the day she disappeared, February 15 2019, adding: ‘I find that she was MURD3Red by Neil Maxwell. I also find that there were a number of failings with regard to the monitoring of Neil Maxwell.’

‘An inexperienced probation officer was supervising him at the time, as a convicted sex offender, had little experience of such offenders.

‘The risk that Neil Maxwell posed to the public generally was underestimated and unreported. There was also a failure of the process to monitor Neil Maxwell as regards attendance at appointments.’

The inquest heard Maxwell had gone missing and proved ‘impossible to find’ for three months after an allegation was made against him on November 29 2018.

The name of Maxwell came up in May 2019 after a member of the public called up to provide information, but officers concluded there was no link between him and Leah, DSI Brown said.

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Leah’s disappearance became a double tragedy when her brother, Haydon (left), killed himself after telling a therapist he was finding it difficult to cope (John, centre and Leah, right)

But on Monday October 10 2022, the investigation finally found Leah after receiving a call from a man doing maintenance work.

‘He was trying to eradicate a smell from the property, which took him into the loft area where he discovered what he thought were human remains’, DSI Brown said.

The owners of the ‘unremarkable’ four-bedroom semi-detached house in Loxbeare Drive, Furzton, lived abroad and used the property as a holiday home, but had not returned since the Covid pandemic broke out in early 2020, the officer said.

Leah was identified from dental records and a post mortem examination and a specialist bone pathologist was unable to ascertain a cause of death.

The court heard Maxwell – who had been at the property and, as a maintenance man, was the only person to have keys – was later found dead elsewhere in Milton Keynes in 2019. He had committed suicide and died from hanging.