A murder inquiry has been launched - eight years after a couple vanished without trace.

China Rose Sims and her husband, David, mysteriously disappeared from their home in Lonsdale Road, Southend, in February 1993.

Detectives have also revealed that David, 53, was a former Metropolitan Police officer.

Investigating officer Det Con Fred Simpkins confirmed the case was being treated as murder.

He said: "Certainly we are treating it as a murder inquiry in relation to Mrs Sims and Mr Sims could be seen as a suspect. But they've both been missing for eight years so we could be talking about a double murder inquiry. After seven years, a person can be presumed dead legally."

Filipino China Rose, who would now be 35, met David while he was on business in the Phillipines. The couple married in 1988 and moved to Britain.

She was last seen on Valentine's Day in 1993 by her sister Joy Acres, who lives in Lawford, near Colchester.

Two months later her husband was spotted at the family home in Southend but nothing was ever heard again from China Rose.

Since then, all efforts to trace the pair have proved fruitless despite numerous media appeals.

Anyone with information should contact Det Con Simpkins on 01702 423169 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111

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