POLICE were trying tonight to piece together the last movements of a nine-year-old girl believed to have been strangled in a lorry by her mother’s boyfriend.

Stacey Lawrence was found dead in the cab of 40-year-old Darren Walker’s white Spar lorry at the side of the A605 in Warmington, Northamptonshire, on Saturday afternoon.

Police believe Walker, from the West Bromwich area of the West Midlands, murdered her before killing himself.

His body was found hanging from a tree in nearby woodland.

Northamptonshire Police said officers now had more details about the journey Walker made with Stacey, who was from the West Midlands, but appealed for more information.

Detective Chief Inspector Tricia Kirk said: “It (the lorry) will have spent a great deal of time in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire during daylight hours, particularly on the A47, so I’m hopeful we will get some good information about its movements during the day.”

She said the force had no evidence to indicate Stacey had been sexually assaulted, adding: “While our investigation is still at an early stage, it is clearly something we would like to rule out as quickly as possible.”

Walker worked as a lorry driver for wholesale distribution firm AF Blakemore & Son Ltd, which delivers goods to Spar shops across the Midlands from a depot in Willenhall, West Midlands.

Police said the lorry left the depot at 4am on Friday and headed straight for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.