Missing businesswoman stabbed to death

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LONDON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A body found in a locked garage in a London suburb was confirmed Friday as a missing businesswoman and her death confirmed as a homicide, police said.

A medical examiner reported Carole Waugh, 50, died of a single stab wound, The Daily Telegraph reported. The body was found in the trunk of a car in a garage in New Malden, Surrey.

Metropolitan Police said they were still trying to confirm how long the body had been in the garage. The discovery was made Thursday night, two days after a man was arrested at Luton Airport outside London on suspicion of being involved in Waugh's disappearance.

Waugh's family in County Durham in northern England told police she visited in April but they heard nothing from her after her departure. Police said Waugh, who owned an apartment in London's Marylebone district, had not been seen since April 16.

The man detained for questioning this week was first held on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. The potential charge was upgraded to murder Wednesday.

Investigators say attempts had been made to withdraw money from Waugh's bank accounts, and that someone posed as her brother and tried to sell her apartment.

Police had also been trying to determine if Waugh worked as an escort. She spent eight years working for an oil company in Libya and since then had been working short-term contract jobs while living in London.

The garage where the body was found in a Volkswagen Golf is one of several in New Malden, Surrey, that are rented out. A man who works in the neighborhood said most are rented by contractors who use them to store equipment and the most serious problem before the discovery of the body was their use to hold stolen goods.