The Search for Sarah Wellgreen community group have vowed to continue hunting for the mum-of-five in the same week that police have called off their active search.

Today marks the second anniversary since the 46-year-old disappeared from the home she shared with former partner Ben Lacomba, in Bazes Shaw, New Ash Green , and this week police confirmed their ongoing efforts to find her had come to an end.

The search has been one of the biggest in police history, and was conducted alongside an investigation that led to the conviction of Lacomba for her murder.

While Lacomba had insisted he stayed at home on the night Sarah disappeared, between October 9 and 10, 2018, evidence proved he had left the house before travelling to an unknown location that night, and Lacomba was sentenced to 27 years in prison in November last year.

While Sarah's body has never been found, there remains hope that the efforts of the community search team will yield success, and that a forthcoming TV documentary on Sky Crime will invigorate public interest in the case, perhaps triggering memories and bringing new information to light.

This week Detective Chief Inspector Ivan Beasley of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said he felt deeply for the family, and wished his efforts had led to Sarah being found.

"Although it is now two years since Sarah Wellgreen disappeared from her home in New Ash Green, the pain and anguish experienced by her children and other family members is still very raw and will likely remain with them for the rest of their lives," he said.

"We recently made the difficult decision to bring an end to the active search for Sarah, which was one of the biggest in the history of modern policing. Sadly we have not yet found Sarah but there is one person who knows of her whereabouts – the man convicted of her murder, Ben Lacomba, who was sentenced to life with a minimum jail term of 27 years last November."

And he appealed directly to Lacomba to help bring some of the family's suffering to an end, adding: "If he has a shred of decency left and feels anything for Sarah’s grieving family, including the children they shared together, then I would appeal to him to have the courage to speak up and tell us where she is. It is not too late to do the right thing."

He added: "Although the active search for Sarah has now concluded, we will continue to follow up any new information we receive in the hope that her family can finally lay her to rest. We therefore continue to appeal for anyone in the area surrounding New Ash Green, Longfield and south towards Sevenoaks to please contact us if they see anything unusual or suspicious, particularly in rural areas which may be connected to where Sarah’s body is hidden.

"I would like to thank every police officer and staff member, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, members of the public and other volunteers, including those from Kent Search and Rescue, who committed thousands of hours over the course of the 22-month search for Sarah. But most importantly I would like to thank Sarah’s family for their understanding and for the amazing dignity they have shown throughout what must have been an agonising last two years for them.

"We will never give up hope of one day finding out what happened to Sarah so they can give her the proper goodbye she deserves."

Sarah's mother Anne Reid has since thanked both the police and public search teams for their "amazing" work, and meanwhile the Search for Sarah Wellgreen community group said they would never stop their hunt.

Team leader Sharon Brine said the coronavirus pandemic had impacted on their activities but remained optimistic Sarah would be found.

"This year has been difficult because of Covid but what it has done is given a lot of people the opportunity to get out there so we feel if she was somewhere obvious it would have been picked up," she explained. "We've since come up with some other ideas and a couple of different places - some small scale searches.

"We've got a couple of abseilers ready to go off the side of Terry's Lodge Road, but we've got to meet with the police first.

"It's a sheer drop off the road, but it's something that fits in with where they last saw the car."

She added: "We keep starting at the beginning and see if two years later on we can think of anything different.

"Our feeling is he's not that clever; he's just been lucky. That's our unanimous feeling. We all feel pretty conclusively that she's right under our nose. We'll keep treading it until we find her.

"There's no stop. The pace has changed because of Covid - it's made it difficult for people to commit to help and we can't have crowds and big search parties, but we're constantly marking up areas, and we need to talk to the police again and get their thoughts on what we're thinking."

Sharon said the community group also remained in close touch with Sarah's older children Jack and Lewis, and with her mother Anne Reid.

"We're giving day to day support to Jack and we're at the end of the phone for Anne and Lewis," she said. "Lewis is now in a different world to his life before. He's doing really well in the army and loving every minute of it.

"There's a picture of him in his full gear outside Buckingham Palace - Sarah would be hugely proud of him.

"Anne is doing an amazing job with the other children which is incredibly hard work."

A forthcoming documentary, set to air on Wednesday November 11, will focus on the murder as part of the Sky Crime series Killer in My Village, and Sharon, who was interviewed along with members of the police team and others connected with the case, hoped the coverage would reignite public interest in the case.

"People still talk about her, and people still ask", she said. "The filming that took place has rekindled awareness again. We're still getting daily new likes on the Facebook page - we're quite shocked at the amount of new followers.

"At the moment there's two agendas - one is to find her and the other is to give as much support in every way."

As for the police search, she was convinced all those involved would never truly move on from the case until Sarah was found.

"I think the money has probably run out", she added. "I do believe all the officers involved are like us and are determined. I imagine the likes of (police search leader) Ryan Law - I don't suppose he goes anywhere without looking twice and wondering if she's there. On a personal level they're all committed but in reality it's not that easy. I don't doubt that with everyone who was involved - they will never stop looking."

While some positive aspects have arisen from the search effort, strengthening the community in New Ash Green, Sharon said the search had been "very consuming" for those involved.

And she added: "We're all sitting here feeling like we've failed until we find her. It's not a good place to be. We didn't expect to be here two years later, not having found her.

"My thoughts are he [Lacomba] is doing the same as any of his predecessors in the way of murderers - holding the last bit of control. That doesn't make him clever or better than anyone else. It makes him a coward.

"We're going to find her - we will find her. It's just the time frame keeps changing, and we just didn't think it will take this long, but that doesn't mean we're not committed."

To support Sarah Wellgreen's family visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/Sarah-Wellgreen-Trust .

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