Body of missing PR executive found in shallow grave

The body of a woman reported missing days after she was spotted shopping has been found in shallow grave in a wealthy suburb of London.

Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, was reported missing after she did not turn up for work on Monday, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Police launched a missing person inquiry saying her absence was "out of character."

On late Wednesday night, officers located her body in a shallow grave just blocks away from her house.

The French national was last seen alive on Saturday at a supermarket near her home, and was messaging friends. 

Producer Hester Ruoff, who knew Garcia-Bertaux from work, was among those to have talked to her close friend hours before she was reported missing. 

Ruoff told The Telegraph: "I am just absolutely devastated. "

"It's very, very rare in our industry that you find someone you trust in a way that I trusted her. She was just the most trustworthy woman with so much charisma, so much spirit."

At the time of her death she had been writing two screenplays for a feature film and was funding her career in the entertainment industry but working as a PR and marketing executive.

Garcia-Bertaux gained her first experience on a feature film in 2012 while working on Tower Block, which starred Sheridan Smith and Jack O'Connell, and in 2015 she was a production intern on Bone in the Throat - a film starring Vanessa Kirby, Ed Westwick and John Hannah. 

She was also a beauty blogger, an accomplished dancer, singer, songwriter and performed in a cover band called The Tams.

A formal identification of the body has not yet taken place, however, the woman's family have been notified of the discovery.

A murder investigation has been launched by detectives.