A YOUNG mum living near the woodland spot where human remains were discovered has told of the sense of shock among locals.

Jade Hitchens, 23, and her parents saw scores of police officers descend onto land at the bottom of their garden in Huntick Road, later launching a murder inquiry.

Jade says she came home from work with 18-month-old son Joshua on Tuesday to find police “literally everywhere”.

She said: “My mum, who got home earlier, thought I had been killed.

“She thought I was on a day off and was so scared.

“It’s a small village and word spreads quickly.

“People are shocked.”

The grisly goings-on have made their idyllic home feel scarily remote. Their nearest neighbours are on a smallholding a long way down the closed-off lane to North House Farm.

“It’s pretty scary,” said Jade, an office worker. “This house used to scare me because it’s out of the way. Now, again, I think that if anything was to happen, no-one would hear me screaming.

“I feel safe with the police here. It will be strange when they’ve gone.”

Despite being just yards from the scene and having their cars searched each time they come and go, the family know little about what’s been going on.

Jade, a resident of around five years, read on the Daily Echo website that remains had been found, but feels officers on the cordon could have kept them informed.

“It’s just horrible,” she added. “Now I know what it is, it’s not any better.

“It’s basically in my back garden and everybody knew before us.”

On Monday night Joshua’s dad saw a car and a van parked in a nearby layby by the thick woodland from 8pm-11pm.

The next day, police set up a white marquee and made it a base for their inquiry.