POLICE have confirmed that a body found in a shallow grave next to the A3 at Petersfield is that of Norwich prostitute Hayley Curtis.
Norfolk police travelled to Portsmouth with dental records of the 23-year-old, to confirm the identification of the badly decomposed body found in a field next to the motorway just south of Petersfield.
The corpse was discovered last Friday afternoon by a dog walker who contacted the police on his mobile phone.
A team of 25 officers set up an incident room at Fratton police station to carry out their enquiry, Operation Gillman.
The body, partially buried in the ditch, was estimated to have been there for between two and six months.
Police cordoned off an area of the field behind the ditch to carry out a forensic sweep of the site popular with ramblers and local dog walkers.
A full post mortem at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham found no serious injuries.
Earlier this week police announced that the body is that of Hayley Curtis who was last seen by her family last October in the Mile Cross area of Norwich. She was reported missing a few days before Christmas.
Police fear that the incident is linked to a series of attacks on prostitutes from the red light district of Norwich.