Catherine Shaw: what happened to British backpacker in Guatemala?

The body of Catherine Shaw, a British backpacker who went missing in Guatemala last week, has been found.

The Lucie Blackman Trust, which has been supporting 23-year-old’s family, confirmed that a body discovered during the search was indeed Shaw.

“Catherine’s family have been informed. Please respect their privacy at this difficult time,” a statement read.

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Shaw, from Witney in Oxfordshire, disappeared from a hotel in the San Pedro area of Lake Atitlan, 80 miles west of capital Guatemala City, on 5 March, The Daily Telegraph reports. She had been travelling around the Central American country for two weeks with a friend, who woke up on the morning to discover that Shaw had vanished, having left behind her passport and mobile phone.

A search operation, involving drones, a dive team and helicopter, was launched.

The Guardian reports that Shaw had left her accommodation at 1.37am, but then returned at 3.19am, before leaving again at 5.23am heading in the direction of the lake. The Lucie Blackman Trust said that at this point she “had a puppy with her but no other possessions”.

“The animal was found alive ‘shivering and crying’ on Friday morning at the highest lookout of Indian Nose, a volcano overlooking Lake Atitlan,” reports Sky News.

The broadcaster says that her jacket was also found on a mountain trail, reportedly about two miles from where she was last seen, before her body was then discovered at the top of El Naudiz in San Juan La Laguna.

The area is wooded and uninhabited, and the body “was found among brush without clothes and in a state of decomposition”, The Independent says, adding that police in Guatemala have launched a criminal investigation into her death.