Questions have been raised about the police investigation into the disappearance of schoolgirl Tia Sharp, as it was revealed police had searched the home of her grandmother three times before a body was found there.
Between 80 and 100 officers had been involved in searches for Tia, including woodland near her grandmother's home.
But the house was not fully searched by a specialist forensics team until Friday.
The boyfriend of Christine Sharp, Tia's grandmother, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Stuart Hazell was interviewed by police as a witness on Wednesday but then released, and later disappeared. A member of the public spotted him and called the police.
The schoolgirl had been missing for a week before the body was found.
Until then, journalists had been able to approach the house, although at times reporters were met with hostility from family members.
Police did not reveal where in the house the body was discovered.
Forensic police officers leave the home of Christine Sharp, grandmother of missing school girl Tia Sharp in New Addington near Croydon
Before Hazell was found, Neil Basu, the area commander responsible for south east London, said: "Clearly there will be many questions about the investigation into Tia's disappearance and I want to take this opportunity to clarify some of the speculation.
"When police investigate cases as difficult and challenging as this, it is important that we do not just focus on one line of inquiry.
"For example we had over 60 reported sightings of Tia, 800 hours of CCTV footage to examine and 300 plus calls into the incident room. All of these lines of inquiry were in the process of being followed up.
"A number of searches took place at the address. When Tia was first reported missing, officers searched her bedroom as is normal practice in a missing persons inquiry.
"A further search of the house took place in the early hours of Sunday morning by a specialist team.
"This was then followed by another search of the house by specialist dogs on Wednesday lunchtime.
"What we now need to establish is how long the body had been in the place where it was found.
"This will be subject of the ongoing investigation and it would be wrong to jump to any conclusions until all the facts have been established.
"Throughout the inquiry, we have liaised closely with Tia's family. We have kept them updated and have provided support at all times. Today's pre-planned search was undertaken with their full co-operation."
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Officers were seen taking a ladder into the property this afternoon, sparking rumours that it may have been found in the loft.
A dark holdall was later seen being removed from the house.
Scotland Yard had also been trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage but found no images of her after she was reported missing.
Locals took to Twitter to question why the police investigation had taken so long.
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