SHOCKED villagers have spoken of their horror at the second murder to hit the area in five years.

Staff at the nearby Robin Hood pub served lunchtime drinkers as the grisly news filtered through yesterday.

Horrified customers - already drawing comparisons with the 1995 Celine Figard murder - were stunned.

"I can't believe it," said 33-year-old Julie Pollock, of Bromsgrove.

"My husband Craig and I drink in here once every couple of weeks.

"The only thing that happens here is a bump in the winter if the roads are icy.

"It's horrible to think this has happened here - it's so very, very quiet."

Police were this morning escorting nursing staff through police cordons to work at Rashwood Nursing Home.

The home, run by the Elizabeth Finn Trust, was thought to be operating as usual.

Staff would not comment on the incident, despite the battered corpse being dumped yards from its entrance gates.

Workers at the Little Chef watched the hunt for the woman's killer unfold as a team of forensic experts carried out their search directly opposite the restaurant.

The body was dumped in the narrow lane some time between Saturday night and 8.30am yesterday.

The village was buzzing with talk of Celine Figard's murder in December 1995.

Her body was found less than six miles from Rashwood on the A449 in Hawford.

Trucker Stuart Morgan picked up the bubbly 19-year-old at Chieveley Services on the M4 in Berkshire before raping and strangling her.

The killer kept her body in his cab for 10 days while he celebrated Christmas with his wife and son.

Morgan, of Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, was jailed for life in October 1996.