A CASKET and ashes found floating in the River Itchen in Winchester are to be buried after a police investigation failed to find any relatives of the deceased.

The remains of the woman were discovered by a walker in a part of the river that runs through Winchester.

The shocked passer-by fished the casket out of the water before handing it over to detectives in the city who started the long process of tracing the person.

After a week of investigation, police revealed they had found the name of the deceased but were still no closer to working out how she had ended up in the river.

The remains were those of 86-year-old Florence 'Babs' Bowyer who passed away in May 1990 and who had lived in West End in Southampton. Officers then appealed for help from the Daily Echo in trying to track down Mrs Bowyer's family as a death notice had been placed by relatives in the paper shortly after her death.

The notice revealed the pensioner had come from Flamborough in North Yorkshire, that she had a son called David and a late husband called Mac, and that she had died in Bridlington Hospital and had been cremated in Scarborough. At the time police suspected Mrs Bowyer's relatives may have suffered a burglary and that the casket was taken during the raid.

However six months on from the discovery, police say they have still not been able to trace the dead woman's family and have now exhausted all avenues of enquiry.

Lead officer PC Nick Wieczorek said: "It's a mystery.''

Instead, possession of the casket has been turned over to the authorities at Winchester Cathedral where the remains will now be interred. A spokesman for the cathedral said the final resting-would be recorded in the cathedral records so that if the family are ever traced, they can come and pay their respects to Florence.