POLICE searching for a Hampshire mum-of-two who has been missing for a week have found a body.

The grim discovery was made last night near Southampton Common, one week on from when Charlene McCluskey vanished without a trace after leaving work at a Southampton pub.

The news came just hours after the 29-year-old’s mum Fiona came to the Daily Echo to make a renewed emotional appeal in the hope of finding her daughter safe and well.

Officers leading the major search operation confirmed that specialist search teams found the body of a woman in an area of dense woodland near the Common yesterday evening.

While formal identification is yet to be made, a spokesperson said that Charlene’s family were notified of the discovery.

A post-mortem examination will take place in “due course” but at this stage officers said that they are not treating the death as suspicious.

A police spokesperson added: “We would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest gratitude to the public and media who have helped us in the search since Ms McCluskey was reported missing last Thursday.

“Our thoughts remain with Ms McCluskey’s family.”

Speaking to the Daily Echo just hours before the discovery, Charlene’s mum told how she had waited three days before plucking up the courage to tell her two grandsons that their mother was missing.

She said how the youngsters, aged 12 and eight, had been helping with the huge effort to find her – making posters appealing for help to find their mum, as scores of police and major crime detectives scoured the city.

As previously reported, it was exactly one week ago today, during the early hours of the morning, that the Southampton barmaid disappeared.

Since then, huge efforts have been undertaken to find her, with officers searching the River Itchen, scouring through gardens and roads, and even drafting in a police helicopter to assist the hunt.

Scores of officers were involved in the hunt, carefully trawling though footage from CCTV cameras across the area to see if Charlene had by chance been captured on camera.

Extensive work was also being carried out around mobile phone mast data to try to locate which area she was in when she made her final call.

Daily Echo:

Charlene's mum Fiona McCluskey with family friend Andrea Shotter, right

On Tuesday marine unit police searched a stretch of the River Itchen between Cobden Bridge and Northam Bridge in the hunt for the mum.

And yesterday teams of specialist search officers spent the day in Gordon Avenue looking through bins and in residents’ gardens to try to locate her phone and black handbag with gold clasp.

Police also revealed how a good Samaritan had spotted Charlene sitting on the ground in the area of 40 and 42 Gordon Avenue and approached her. He walked away when she refused his help only to return past the same spot at about 1am to find that she had gone.

The final time anyone heard from Charlene was when she called 999 at 1.08am – but she refused to tell officers where they could find her.

Breaking down in tears as she spoke exclusively to the Echo, Fiona recalled how she was woken in the early hours of last Thursday morning by a knock on the door from police, who told her that they were concerned for the welfare of the 29- year-old.

She then had to endure listening to a recording of Charlene’s desperate call to police and confirm that it was her daughter as the major search to find her got under way.

Fiona told how since learning of her daughter’s disappearance – which she says was completely out of character – she has barely slept. Instead, her main priority has been ensuring that her grandsons are OK.

“It’s been a rollercoaster at best,” said Fiona, who last saw Charlene only hours before she vanished, working behind the bar at the Richmond Inn in Portswood Road.

“Later that evening I got a text from her and she told me she would be getting a taxi home, sharing with a customer she knew. They all looked after her up there.

“That was it, the last I heard. I just replied ‘All right love, see you in the morning’.”

Daily Echo:

Charlene McCluskey

Fiona told how Charlene had tried to make contact that night with several people, asking a friend if she could visit her and also sending a text to her brother, but he did not receive it until the following day.

“She didn’t try to get hold of me, but I wish she had,” she added. “I didn’t tell the boys until Saturday because I was just hoping she would be back.”

Fiona told how she had been inundated with messages of love and support for her and for Charlene, with countless offers to help find the former Glenfield and Beechwood schoolgirl, who finished her education at the former Sholing Girls’ School.

She said: “It’s been overwhelming, all the offers of help from people. I’ve received so many lovely messages.”