'Deep Freeze' Anne Noblett murder leads dismissed

Anne Noblett disappeared after getting a bus home from a dance class

New leads that emerged 60 years after a 17-year-old girl's body was found frozen in woodland failed to "progress the investigation", police said.

Anne Noblett's body was discovered in woodland near Whitwell, Hertfordshire, on 31 January 1958.

It was dubbed the "Deep Freeze Murder" because of her frozen state. A killer has never been identified.

Six calls were made to police after an anniversary appeal, but no information to progress the case came to light.

Anne was last seen alive getting off a bus on her way to her family home in Marshalls Heath Lane, Wheathampstead, after a dance class on 30 December 1957.

• The mystery of the 'Deep Freeze' murder

Scotland Yard was involved in the search for Anne's killer

Her body was found 32 days later by two dog walkers about five miles from where she vanished but it is believed she was killed within hours of her disappearance.

She had been strangled and probably sexually assaulted and the state of her body suggested she had been held in a refrigerated storage unit - a rarity at the time.

Police checked all deep-freeze equipment within about 30 miles of where the body was found as well as farmland, buildings, outhouses and factories.

A number of "persons of interest" were interviewed, including, reportedly, a refrigeration expert.

Anne was returning home on Marshalls Heath Lane, where her family's motorcycle helmet business was based, when she disappeared

No-one was ever charged with her murder and 60 years on Hertfordshire Police sought information to help give the family closure.

A police spokeswoman said: "We followed up the responses following the appeal and unfortunately no information has come to light that would enable us to progress the investigation any further at this stage."