MURDER squad detectives have searched a Gospel Oak estate for clues as they try to finally unlock the mystery behind the disappearance of a woman who has not been seen for five years. Detectives and forensic teams have been working through the night at two properties in Wellesley Road. Wearing protective boiler suits, they have also undertaken inch-by-inch searches of an underground car park. Scotland Yard are not discussing what prompted the new searches or if a breakthrough had been made, but they have confirmed that police teams at the council blocks were working on the case of Lana Purcell, a mother-of-one who suddenly went missing in 2011. The former Parliament Hill School pupil was 26 when she was last seen. She had struggled with a drug addiction but, much loved by friends and family, had gone through periods of better health, becoming a mother and was working to turn her life around from a past of petty crime. Ms Purcell was well known in the Queen’s Crescent area but there has been no trace of her since she called her sister, Davina, on January 13, 2011, asking to come around for a chat. She was reported missing when, days later, she had not been in touch again. Her family have made several appeals for help, including regular interviews with the New Journal, as they urged police to start treating the case as a murder. Officers had originally suspected Ms Purcell may have intentionally disappeared from her flat in Agar Grove, Camden Town, to get away from disruptive influences in her attempts to build a new life. Relatives had never believed this to be the case and say that, even in low times, she would ­regularly call and visit. As time has passed, they have grown increasingly worried for her safety and, in their darkest moments, fear the worst. As revealed in the New Journal, detectives reviewed the case and moved it from a missing persons inquiry to the desk of the murder squad last year. It was then passed on to a team who specialise in “cold case” research. A source close to the investigation confirmed this week that, with no sign of Ms Purcell now in half a decade, her disappearance was officially a murder investigation. In 2012, in response to questions from the New Journal as to how the case was being investigated, detectives said they had checked Ms Purcell’s mobile phone records, bank accounts and scoured CCTV footage in the Queen’s Crescent area which she would regularly visit. This week, officers could be seen searching an alleyway and going into two nearby two ­properties on Monday. The estate is known as somewhere she and her acquaintances would visit regularly. No arrests have been made. A police spokesman said yesterday (Wednesday): “Detectives continue to investigate the disappearance of Lana Purcell and are working closely with her family. Enquiries continue.” Ms Purcell’s sisters, Davina and Lucy, have told how in the past how they feared Lana had come to harm as she had not touched her bank account and her mobile phone had not been used. They added that, despite an addiction to hard drugs, she had run a well-kept home, had ­battled to overcome her issues, and was a kind and loving sibling.