Police launched a massive air and land search in the early hours of this morning to look for a man in his 50s reported missing.

A body was discovered at 2am today by officers near Boyce Hill Golf Course, in Benfleet, but formal identification is yet to be carried out. Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

A spokesman for Essex Police said the family of the missing Benfleet man called the police shortly after 11pm yesterday as they could not find him.

The spokesman said: "Officers carried out a ground search in the Benfleet area after we received the call from the man's family.

"The Essex Police helicopter went out at 1am to help with the search."

Published Monday, April 7 , 2003

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