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WATCH: How West Midlands Police caught Julia Rawson's murderers

A detective leading the hunt for the killers of Julia Rawson said the discovery of her body sent a "shock" through the police's investigation unit.

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Caught on camera: Nathan Maynard-Ellis and David Leesley are stopped in the street by police

Nathan Maynard-Ellis and his boyfriend David Leesley were both found guilty of murdering her at their flat in Mission Drive, Tipton, last year.

Police officers had spent 47 days trawling the area – including tunnels and the canal – in May last year, before making the "very grim discovery".

Detective Inspector Jim Colclough, from West Midlands Police's homicide team, said it was "late in the afternoon" when he received the call.

WATCH: West Midlands Police video

He said: "The discovery that was made on the other side of the canal and the waste area sent a shock through the investigation team. I think we all feared the worst would come round the corner.

"I received a call from search investigators to be informed that they had made what turned out to be a very grim discovery.

"It was evident from the first viewing that we had located body parts and those parts had been found in two separate bags sort of spread from each other over a distance of 20 so metres."

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The body parts were wrapped in a black material and were "very very well" wrapped and preserved, with the discovery made due to an exposed body part – the scent of which was picked up by a search dog.

CCTV enquires had shown Maynard-Ellis and Leesley walking away from the flat on many occasions with carrier bags, casually walking down the canal.

And police officers, who lifted the carpet in the living room of the Tipton flat, found a stain underneath the underlay – which turned out to be Julia's blood.

It was sent off to be analysed and was returned as matching blood from 42-year-old Ms Rawson, a stall-holder at Dudley Market, giving police "the first indication" she came to harm at their flat, DI Colclough said.

Footage had also shown Maynard-Ellis deny having anything to do with Julia going missing when questioned by officers during the missing persons case.

Nathan Maynard-Ellis, 30, was found guilty of Ms Rawson's murder alongside his 25-year-old boyfriend David Leesley at Coventry Crown Court on Monday.

Maynard was also found guilty of four counts of rape, one of attempted rape and making threats to kill relating to historical allegations made by a woman following his arrest.

Both defendants, of Mission Drive in Tipton, had admitted perverting the course of justice and concealing a body after the dismemberment of Ms Rawson's remains in May last year.

Following the verdicts at Coventry Crown Court, delivered after around seven hours of deliberations, Mr Justice Soole adjourned sentence for a later date.

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