Mandy Reed, a champion cheese maker, has been found dead in a snowy garden in North Yorkshire.
Although it is believed that the director of the award winning Swaledale Cheese Company perished in the freezing conditions experienced across Britain this week, initial port mortem reports have proved inconclusive.
Her body was found in a garden near her home in the village of Scorton, on the edge of Yorkshire Dales, near Richmond, around 5pm on Sunday.
She was reported missing less than half an hour before, and was last seen by her son Sam, who waved her off in a taxi after a family evening out the night before. The 47-year-old business woman shares her home with her daughter Louise.
North Yorkshire Police are investigating the circumstances. A spokesman said it had still not been established exactly how she died.
The death of 47-year-old widow Mandy Reed has been described as "very very sad" by Richmondshire Council leader John Blackie.
Running the cheese company alone after her husband died from a heart attack only 6 years ago, the Swaledale Cheese Company won four medals at last year’s British Cheese Awards. The enterprising cheese firm won a "super-gold" award for their Swaledale Blue at the 2011 World Cheese Awards.
Tributes poured in for the woman known locally as 'the Cheese Lady'. The business woman was hailed by a local councillor for "keeping the name of Swaledale Cheese alive"
The chairman of tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire, Gary Verity has said that Mrs Reed was a “lovely lady”.
He said: “She was a familiar sight, certainly at Leyburn market on a Friday, and she was known as ‘the cheese lady’. That was the slogan on her stall.
“She was part of the furniture really, and she will be sadly missed.”