IT'S almost two and a half years since Evelyn Lund was found dead on the back seat of her Toyota Landcruiser at the bottom of a French lake.

And it was 22 months before that, in December 1999, that the former Darwen woman was reported missing by her husband, former Blackburn with Darwen tree protection officer Robert Lund.

During all that time, Robert Lund has insisted he has done nothing wrong but freely admits that he has been treated as if he was the prime suspect in a murder case.

Now, following a trip to the Tarn region by Lancashire police officers to talk to their French counterparts, he is calling for decisions to be made.

He says he believes police are still holding his wife's body and he wants it released. But he also claims French police have done little in the way of investigation.

France is traditionally not a country where criminal investigations move swiftly.

But this investigation has dragged on long enough.

Later this year it will be the fifth anniversary of Evelyn Lund's disappearance.

For the sake of her family and friends in East Lancashire and France as well as Robert Lund it is time for this matter to be concluded either by bringing charges or announcing that there is no evidence that a crime has been committed.