Pair found dead in pond

A 71-year-old woman and her six-year-old grandson have been found dead in a pond.

The discoveries followed a search on land and by RAF helicopter at Holywell, near Castle Bytham, Lincolnshire.

The alarm was raised by the boy’s mother after he went to stay with her mother and did not return home.

Police said that after the call from the boy’s mother at 9:20pm on Thursday, they went to the woman’s home in Castle Bytham. No-one was there and a search began for the missing pair and the grandmother’s car.

Officers found the car close to a duck pond in Holywell. Soon afterwards the body of a woman was recovered from the pond.

The search continued into the night for the boy and just before 4am Lincolnshire Police underwater search unit officers recovered the body of a child from the pond. A police spokesman said: “The circumstances surrounding the deaths are being investigated and post-mortems will be carried out in due course.”