Mark Brown: What happened to double murderer's victim Leah Ware?

Two women who met Mark Brown on an escort website disappeared, with no trace of one of them ever being found.

Alexandra Morgan, known as Alex by her friends and family, was reported missing days after visiting Brown at his East Sussex farm in November 2021.

Brown killed her and then burned her body in a converted oil drum.

While investigating Ms Morgan's death, officers discovered Brown's girlfriend Leah Ware had disappeared the previous May. She has never been found.

Brown, 40, lived at Squirrel Close, St Leonards, and was employed in the groundworks industry.

He had a long-term partner who he had been with for at least 14 years, and has a child with her.

He rented a yard with buildings and a shipping container at Little Bridge Farm in Westfield, near St Leonards, where it is believed Ms Morgan and Ms Ware were killed.

Brown had been using an escort site to message and meet women. His family were not aware of this.

He said he had met "fewer than 10" women through the site. None of the others came to any harm, police believe.

Sussex Police said there were not believed to be any other victims of Brown.

Ms Morgan was 34 at time of her disappearance. She lived in Wilsley Pound, Cranbrook, Kent.

She was a single mother of two children who are now aged five and 12.

Unknown to her family, she had been working as an escort, which is how she met Brown.

Prior to the day she disappeared she had met him several times. On one occasion, he had bought her a Mini, Sussex Police said.

On 13 November she told her parents she was going on a spa break with friends. She told them she would be back three days later.

She actually went to meet Mark Brown at his yard in Westfield, East Sussex, having been been promised a "six figure sum" for the weekend.

The trial was told she was murdered there by Brown. Her body was burned in an oil drum which Brown had adapted for the purpose.

Brown had bought six litres of diesel hours after Ms Morgan had died, the jury was told.

On 17 November Ms Morgan's family raised concerns after she failed to pick up her children.

Brown claimed he had paid for sex at the farm and that Ms Morgan left within 45 minutes.

However, her remains were found in an oil drum on a building site Brown had been working on in Sevenoaks, Kent. Forensic teams found hundreds of fragments of bone and teeth.

Brown told his boss he expected to be arrested. He said: "I said I'm going away for 25 to life."

Brown said that Ms Morgan died in an accident at the farm, and told the court: "I can't prove I didn't kill Alex and I didn't think anyone would believe me."

At Ms Morgan's home police discovered a box of rollerblades in her youngest son's bedroom.

Inside, along with the rollerblades, was a phone, some money, and written instructions on how to unlock the phone. The prosecution described it as trail which Ms Morgan had left in case she came to harm when she met with Brown, showing she already had concerns.

On 26 November 2021 officers decided they wanted to speak to Leah Ware because she had previously had a relationship with Brown. They could find no trace of her.

Leah Ware was 33, and a mother of three, but she did not have custody of her children. She led a chaotic lifestyle, Brown's trial heard.

She was an animal lover who was devoted to her horse, three goats and two dogs, a mastiff called Duke and a Pomeranian called Lady.

In March 2018 she met Brown via the same escort website he used to meet Ms Morgan, and by the end of that year they had started a relationship and rented a flat together.

When the lease expired six months later, she moved to Brown's yard on Little Bridge Farm.

Ms Ware lived in a caravan at the site, and then a shipping container which Brown had adapted. It had a kitchenette and a bedroom which could be locked from the outside. On occasions, Ms Ware was locked in the bedroom by Brown, the jury was told.

One of Ms Ware's friends told his trial that she had "concerns" about her relationship with Brown.

Tamsin Gregory told the court: "She told me a few things and she didn't seem happy at all. It seemed like he was very controlling of her."

Despite having his own his family, Brown would visit Ms Ware when she was there, bringing her supplies.

He "led a double life", according to Sussex Police.

Ms Ware was last seen on CCTV on 4 May 2021, when she made a counter withdrawal from a bank in Hastings and took a vehicle for an MOT in St Leonards.

Two days later she saw a male friend in the early hours of the morning. This was the last confirmed sighting by anyone other than Mark Brown.

On 7 May her phone disappeared from the network. Phone mast records showed Brown was with Leah at that time, The next day Ms Ware's phone is switched off for the last time.

Although Ms Ware's body has never been found police believe she was killed and her body burned by Brown.

Brown confided in a friend about things he had done which "weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul".

He described himself as a "psychopath with a conscience", and also suggested in the same conversation that he was regretting two crimes, with the words: "It happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something."

The day Ms Ware is thought to have been killed Brown bought six litres of petrol.

Police found that Brown had rehomed her mastiff, Duke. This was considered something she would never have agreed to, her family and friends said.

The remains of a Pomeranian were discovered in a pond in Westfield. It is believed these are of Lady. The dog had a weight tied to its lead.

Brown had continued to collect Ms Ware's prescriptions for medication for mental health conditions, and continued to withdraw money using her bank card after 8 May in an attempt to show that she was still alive. He withdrew a total of about £12,000.

During his trial and interrogation by police, Brown had always maintained she was still alive and was missing. The jury at his trial did not believe him.

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