Police investigating the disappearance of a 24 year old Llangynidr woman have found a body in the River Usk in Powys.

Alice Vulliamy has been missing since February 6 when her locked car was found in Brecon. An initial search involving the Brecon Mountain Rescue, Longtown Mountain Rescue from Abergavenny, Western Beacons from Bridgend, and Central Beacons from Merthyr Tydfil, failed to find any further trace of her.

The four mountain rescue teams, along with dog search teams, put in about 1,500 man hours in the hunt for Ms Vulliamy in the week following her disappearance.

Dyfed-Powys Police thanked Brecon Mountain Rescue for continuing with "extensive searches" over the last month and in making the discovery of the body which was recovered from the River Usk, near Pencelli, early on Sunday afternoon.

Police also thanked members of the public who called 101 with information.

Ms Vulliamy's parents and brother have been informed of the discovery and the coroner has been notified.

Speaking to The Chronicle recently, Ms Vulliamy's brother Andrew, a medical student at Cardiff, said he feared his sister's reluctance to return to Bronllys hospital where she was receiving treatment for an eating disorder, may have been behind her disappearance.

"She was not happy there because they aimed to increase her BMI with a slightly higher target than in recent years and Alice was finding it hard to get her head around this and how to cope with it. I think her motivation for disappearing was to do with this because she did not want to go back to Bronllys," said Mr Vulliamy.

The grieving family broke the news of Alice's death on the Facebook page they had set up recently to help with the search for her.

In the statement the family said: "We are very sorry to let you know that Alice has been found in the river Usk, presumed drowned, today Sunday March 20th. We would like to thank everyone for the huge amount of support and encouragement we have received over the past 6 weeks.

Best wishes

Chris , Debbie and Andrew