The family of the student nurse Owami Davies have said they are “forever grateful” that she has been found alive and well.
The 24-year-old, from Grays, Essex, was located in Hampshire on Tuesday almost seven weeks after she went missing. She appeared to be “fit and well cared for” and was not in a vulnerable state, the Metropolitan police said.
Davies spoke to her family who confirmed the news in a statement on Twitter as they thanked those who had helped look for her.
“We the Davies family would like to express our deepest gratitude to each and every one of you wherever you are, whoever you are. Thank you for your well wishes, love, hugs & thoughts. Together we searched far & beyond. We are forever grateful,” they said.
They added that their prayers had been answered as they thanked the public and media for sharing appeals about Davies’s disappearance.
“To everyone who hoped, retweeted, shared, tagged, word of mouth, posters, wrote about it, sang about it, however way you helped us #findowami you did an amazing job. God bless all of you. We thank you so much,” they said.
The news was also welcomed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust in London, where Davies is believed to have secured a job before going missing.
“We are delighted that our colleague Owami has been found and is safe. Thank you to everyone who helped to find her,” the trust tweeted.
The family reported Davies missing to Essex police on 6 July. She had left the family home two days earlier, and she was last seen on CCTV at 12.30pm on 7 July in London Road, Croydon, south London.
Concerns grew for her safety after detectives said she could be “in need of help” in Croydon, or sleeping rough with no money on her Oyster card and no access to her phone or bank cards.
Officers arrested and bailed five men, two on suspicion of murder and three on suspicion of kidnap, as part of the investigation.
The Met trawled through 10,000 hours of CCTV footage and examined 117 reported sightings in its search for the King’s College London student. A member of the public who spotted her in Hampshire on Tuesday morning contacted detectives with the 118th sighting.
Davies’s mother, Nicol, had made a series of desperate appeals for her daughter to make contact.
DCI Nigel Penney, from the Met’s specialist crime command, said officers were trying to establish what led to Davies’s disappearance. “Owami will be spoken to and we’ll try to fathom reasons as to how she disappeared, why she disappeared, and if there was any concern around the days and weeks while she was disappeared for us to be concerned about,” he said.
The Met commander Paul Brogden announced a review of the force’s handling of the case, which has been criticised.