The soldier believed to have murdered student Sally Geeson has killed himself.

He set himself alight before leaping from a seventh-floor window of a hotel room.

Lance Corporal David Atkinson, 31, who served with the Royal Engineers, was wanted for questioning in connection with the death of student Sally, 22, of Cornworthy, Shoebury.

The soldier, described as a "weirdo" by other squaddies, was made No1 suspect after analysis of mobile phone records showed that his mobile and Sally's were extrememly close to each other after she vanished.

Firefighters were called to put out the flames after the body landed on the ground at the hotel in Glasgow.

Det Supt Willie Johnston, from Strathclyde police, said: "Although not yet formally identified, the deceased is strongly suspected to be a man who was wanted for questioning by Cambridgeshire police in relation to a serious crime.''

The naked body of Sally was found on Friday evening by a man walking in woods near the World War II American military cemetery in Cambridge - three miles from the city centre where she spent New Year's Eve.

A post mortem revealed she had been strangled and officers are still awaiting the results of forensic tests to confirm whether or not she had been sexually assaulted.