POLICE investigating the murder of a Hampshire grandmother were today searching a stretch of woodland after they made a major breakthrough that could finally bring her killer to justice.

A key item stolen from the home of Georgina Edmonds on the day she was bludgeoned to death has been found – and is now being tested for fingerprints and DNA.

Today's development can be revealed by the Daily Echo exactly three years to the day that the 77-year-old was found dead in the kitchen of her Brambridge home, on the banks of the picturesque River Itchen.

It is one of three significant items that were stolen from Mrs Edmonds' home on January 11, 2008, and had so far not been recovered by detectives.

They are her Radley handbag, a silver credit card holder and a coloured key fob.

Hampshire police are not revealing which of the items has been recovered, but it is understood that it was found by a member of the public very recently.

Specialist scientific tests are now being carried out before it will be taken to the Forensic Science Service laboratories for further examination.

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The find has sparked a mass police search of an area of woodland less than ten minutes away from Mrs Edmonds’ home in Kiln Lane. Teams of officers were this morning scouring the patch of land at Oakwood Copse in Otterbourne in the hope of recovering further items that may have been discarded by her killer.

It’s thought the potentially crucial discovery could provide the breakthrough needed in the case.

Mrs Edmonds was found dead by her son Harry Edmonds when he returned home to the family estate late in the afternoon.

She had been stabbed repeatedly around the top of her body, something police believe was a form of torture used by her killer to extricate her cashcard PIN.

But the grandmother of two had in fact been killed by blows to her head from a rolling pin in her kitchen and her body left slumped on the floor.

Her killer also locked her inside the small cottage in the dark, taking the door key with them.

Despite dozens of high profile media appeals, police have so far not been able to find the person responsible.

Enquiries initially saw four men arrested from Elderfield, a nearby hostel for ex-offenders, but all were later released without charge.

Last year the Echo revealed how police found a potentially important item found discarded on a stretch of towpath close to Mrs Edmonds home after returning to the area to carry out further searches.

They were carried out just a short time after detectives asked more than 200 men living or working in the local community to give a DNA swab from their mouth to eliminate them from the investigation.

Bail for re-arrested suspect

THE breakthrough comes just days after detectives re-arrested a man suspected of carrying out the murder.

Matthew Hamlen, 32, had been due to answer bail today having initially been arrested on June 30 last year.

But police swooped again last week when Mr Hamlen made his daily appearance at a Hampshire police station as part of his strict bail conditions.

He was questioned further before again being bailed pending further enquiries.

At the time of his original arrest, police took Mr Hamlen away in a police van after turning up to search a house in Bishopstoke where he lives with his mother.

A team of search officers spent most of the day inside the property, while a second address was also targeted in nearby The Crescent, in Eastleigh.

That was a flat where Mr Hamlen lived at the time of the murder – just a short walk across a bridge to the Tesco express garage where someone attempted to use Mrs Edmonds cashcard hours after her death.

The search of the flat saw the loft examined and floorboards ripped up while officers also carried out a fingertip search of the small grassy front garden.

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