Mark Speight's kin to formally ID body

LONDON, April 14 (UPI) -- Mark Speight's family was expected to formally identify a body found in a London train station as the missing British children's TV host, authorities said.

Speight's family is to identify a corpse found Sunday hanging in Paddington Station and officials have ordered an autopsy on the body, the BBC reported Monday.

Speight, 42, apparently hanged himself from the roof of the station, The Sun reported. A police source told the newspaper the body was "up in the roof where the joists are" and not visible from the ground.

Speight had not been seen since last Monday, when security cameras showed him heading into central London on the Underground and then transferring to a line that serves Paddington.

Friends said his emotional state had been "fragile" since the death of his girlfriend, Natasha Collins, in January.

Collins, who had taken cocaine and sleeping pills, died in a bathtub full of scalding water while Speight slept in the next room.

Police arrested Speight, although he was not formally charged.

Speight was a presenter on a BBC children's art show, "SMart."

"Mark was a wonderful son and brother to his family and he will be very sadly missed," Speight's father Oliver told the BBC.