THREE days after her body was found face-down on snow-covered playing fields, the last hours in the life of Shelley Whitfield remain shrouded in mystery.

The auxiliary nurse was found dead only yards from her flat on the outskirts of Durham City, her coat and mobile phone lying near her despite the freezing temperatures, but no sign of injury to explain why she did not take those extra few steps to the safety of her front door.

Yesterday, if anything, the mystery deepened as it emerged that not only had she got off a bus in the village of Meadowfield 12 hours before her body was discovered, but the clutch bag she had been carrying when she did so was missing.

The 21-year-old came from the Spennymoor area, but is not thought to have been in close contact with her family for some years and had lived at the flat in Brandon for about a year.

Neighbour Alan Hall, a 29-year-old taxi driver, said: "She kept herself to herself, but she was a lovely girl."

She is thought to have gone line-dancing, and on Monday night went out drinking at one of the pubs in Meadowfield, near where she was last seen alive.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Reddick said: "She was quite a quiet, introverted person. She did not have an extensive circle of friends, but she is quite well known in the area."

Police have now pieced together much of what happened on the last day of Shelley's life after what they said was an excellent response to appeals for help.

At lunchtime on Tuesday, she met a friend - a 22-year-old man from the Washington area -to spend a day together in Durham.

She wore a black dress-style top, black jeans and white calf-length boots -the same clothing she was wearing when her body was found the following day.

The pair went window shopping in Silver Street, the Market Place and the Prince Bishops Centre, stopping for a chat with one of the stallholders in the Indoor Market.

At about 1.30pm, they went to The Water House, a popular pub in North Road, where Shelley talked to fellow customers, several of whom called police yesterday.

They spent four hours in the pub, having a meal and several drinks in the downstairs bar, before they left to return to the bus station, where grainy security camera pictures captured some of her last moments.

She waved goodbye to her friend at 5.50pm and, ten minutes later, boarded the X49 bus for Brandon still clutching her bag.

Thirty minutes later, having missed her stop, she got off in Meadowfield High Street, an area she knew well.

Friends from the University Hospital of North Durham, where she had worked since August, said she would regularly walk home after work.

The street is separated from her home by a wide open piece of land, which was once the spoil heap of Brandon pit.

The land is criss-crossed by walkways that are popular with dog owners and as short-cuts home for drinkers in the pubs of the two villages.

Her home lay on the other side of the darkened expanse of woods and playing fields.

She never reached home, and police are determined to find out why.