Police investigating the discovery of a severed female head are comparing samples from the remains with missing people from all over the country.
POLICE investigating the discovery of a severed female head are comparing samples from the remains with missing people from all over the country.
Detectives at Lothian and Borders Police believe the remains found in Edinburgh last week probably belonged to someone over the age of 14 and who died anything between six months and 15 years ago.
One report suggested it was likely the bones belonged to someone nearer middle age.
Officers have ruled out the possibility the head belonged to 43-year-old Edinburgh woman Louise Tiffney, whose family believed she was killed after she disappeared.
But they are understood to be carrying out testing on other missing people.
The remains were described by police as being decomposed after initially thought to have been mummified. Officers said multiple forensic tests were still ongoing.
Police are still treating the find as a "suspicious death", saying there was not yet enough evidence to describe it as a murder inquiry.
