Owami Davies left her home in Essex on 4 July and was last seen on CCTV in Croydon three days later.
Student nurse Owami Davies, who has been missing for more than seven weeks, has been found safe and well in Hampshire, the Met Police announced on Tuesday.
Davies, the Met said, was found “as a result of a call to police from someone who had seen media appeals”.
They said the call was the 118th reported sighting officers had received and was made at 10.30am Tuesday. Some 50 officers had trawled through 50,000 hours of CCTV footage in the Met’s efforts to find the 24-year-old.
Davies, who was studying nursing at King’s College London, left her home in Grays, Essex, on 4 July, and was last seen on CCTV in Croydon on 7 July.
The Met said it would now review its investigation along with Essex Police.
The Met said that Davies’s family had spoken to her and she appeared to be fit and well cared for.
Officers will speak to Ms Davies more fully in due course about her welfare.
Detective chief inspector Nigel Penney, who led the investigation, said on Tuesday that finding Davies alive and well was “the outcome we were all hoping and praying for”.
“I’d like to say she has been found safe and well outside the London area in the county of Hampshire and she’s currently with specialist officers from my team.” He added: “She looks in good health, she’s in a place of safety, and not currently in the vulnerable state that we were led to believe she was in at the start of her disappearance.”
Both Commander Paul Brogden and Penney said they were “ecstatic” at the outcome of the case, with the Met commander adding: “More importantly I’m pleased for Owami’s mother and her brother.”
Brogden also said “all aspects” of the investigation would be reviewed to assess whether there is “any learning that we need to take” from how it was handled.
Before she went missing Davies was nearing the end of her studies and had secured a job with Guys St Thomas Trust (GSTT) after working as an A&E nurse during the pandemic.
We are delighted that our colleague Owami has been found and is safe. Thank you to everyone who helped to find her. https://t.co/9KILW5Vv75
— Guy's and St Thomas' (@GSTTnhs) August 23, 2022
Her colleagues at GSTT welcomed the news she was safe, tweeting: “We are delighted that our colleague Owami has been found and is safe. Thank you to everyone who helped to find her.”
Davies told her mother she was going to the gym on the day she left her home on 4 July, but then was found asleep in a doorway in Clarendon Road, Croydon, on 6 July while waiting for a friend.
She reportedly told Met officers that she did not need their help and went on her way.
Davies family had reported her missing at that time, but she had not been marked as so on the police database.
During the weeks that Davies was missing, five people were arrested and bailed in connection with her disappearance – two on suspicion of murder and three on suspicion of kidnap. The Met later said there was no evidence that Davies had come to harm.
All five remain son police bail and a decision on what happens next to them would follow a “full debrief”, the Met said Tuesday.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was “assessing the available information to determine what further action may be required”, with regards to the police investigation.
