Laureline Garcia-Bertaux was last seen on Saturday and did not attend work on Monday

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Metropolitan police have opened a murder investigation after a woman’s body was found in a shallow grave in Kew, south-west London.

Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, was last seen on Saturday evening at a supermarket in the Manor Circus area of Richmond, south-west London. She was was reported missing after she did not turn up for work on Monday at the public relations company Golin.

Her body was found in the garden of a property believed to be her home in Darell Road, Kew, on Wednesday evening.

There have been no arrests. Detectives are trying to establish whether she was murdered by someone she knew. Garcia-Bertaux is the 22nd homicide victim in London this year. At this point last year the number killed was 29.

Police said a forensic crime scene was in place at the house, near the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Laureline Garcia-Bertaux. Photograph: PA

Garcia-Bertaux, a French national, studied performance design practice at Central St Martins in London, and is believed to have worked as an executive assistant at Golin. She had also worked in the clothing, TV and film industries, including at the Discovery Channel. She had also blogged on fashion.

Local residents in the upmarket area reacted with shock to the news.

Paul Watkins, 63, said he used to speak to her walking her dogs in the park at the end of the road and saw her recently. He said: “She just loved dogs.”

Her friend Daniel Hughes, 27, said Garcia-Bertaux’s friend reported her missing: “I think the last point the CCTV caught her was outside a Sainsbury’s on Saturday evening in Richmond.

“She was meant to go shopping in Oxford Street on Sunday and she was meant to move out of that house on Monday morning.”

A woman said she had seen her over the weekend with a man as she walked her dogs and recognised that it was Garcia-Bertaux from the leaflet issued when she went missing.

Another neighbour said: “I used to see her walking past with her two dogs, a rottweiler and a husky. I can’t take it in really.”

It is believed family members from France have flown to the UK after police informed them of the news.

A neighbour, Bob Bassett, 75, said he spoke to Garcia-Bertaux about her two large dogs. “She was quiet. I never saw a boyfriend,” he said, adding that he thought she lived in the ground-floor flat alone.

The Met said: “Although formal identification has not taken place, Laureline’s family have been informed of developments and are being supported by specially trained officers.”