ANIMAL lover Evelyn Lund, 52, was found dead in her 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser at the bottom of Bancalie lake in southern France in 2001. The mother-of-three, formerly of Winter Hill, Darwen, had been reported missing from her converted farmhouse in La Veaute by her second husband, Robert, 51, 22 months earlier. Police still don't know how Evelyn died. But Robert admits he is the prime suspect. In the third part of our week-long analysis of the case, reporter CLARE COOK looks at the scale of the police operation .

OPERATION "Disappearance 81" has been the biggest and most complex investigation ever to hit the Tarn region of southern France.

Over the course of four years, hundreds of officers have searched for the crucial key that would unlock the mystery of the lady in the lake.

A quiet beauty spot known as lac de la Bancali, some 20km outside the village of Ralmont, became the central hive of activity. For there on Saturday, October 13, 2001, a horse rider made a chance discovery when autumn sunlight was seen twinkling on the roof of a mysterious 4x4.

It was Evelyn's Toyota Landcruiser - registered missing by her husband Robert on the first day of the new millennium some 22 months earlier.

A gendarme had visited him at the farmhouse in La Veaute, where he was asked to sign a missing person's report after raising the alarm.

Evelyn - whose parents Roisin and Fred Wilkinson, live in Cotswold Avenue, Rawtenstall, and whose first husband was from Burnley - had left wearing her slippers and casual clothes but had taken no handbag or money.

Soon after, a helicopter was called in to search the area - hunting for the Bordeaux-coloured 4x4 in which she had left. The vehicle was always the key to unlocking the truth. "It is the priority," Captain Frdric Delmare, a commander in Castres gendarmes, had said in the months before it was discovered.

Colonel Lagarde, speaking to French newspaper La Dpeche du Midi, said: "The operation was carried out in a very methodical way so as not to overlook anything.

"This affair has become very close to our hearts. It is just like a ball of wool - it will all unravel as soon as we find the end."

The unprecedented inquiry, named after the postal code for the region, has been headed by French gendarmes. They are responsible for policing the countryside and come under the umbrella of the ministry of defence.

After the discovery, gendarmes in Ralmont alerted colleagues in Castres, who mobilised special incident units, sniffer dogs, forensic teams, divers and the audio-visual unit from Toulouse were brought in.

Removing the 4x4 was a complex exercise. Divers from the gendarmes at l'Arcachon were enlisted to bring up the slightest piece of evidence and regularly came to the surface taking notes with special writing material.

Thierry Antoine, of Castres, was working in the area. He said: " I remember it was a very hot day. There were officers everywhere and the whole area was no-go. Security was very tight and you needed a special pass to get through the barriers set up 100 metres away from the discovery.

"They spent the whole day getting the vehicle out and covered it in black plastic as it was edged out of the water to preserve any fingerprints. Divers kept popping up making notes and cameras were sent under water to record everything.

"They pulled out the windscreen and the petrol cap separately.

"They had chopped down all the branches to get a crane on to the edge of the lake as it was not a proper path. Then they managed to get it the right way round and drag it out."

Their search for Evelyn, who has relatives in Darwen and Blackburn, first came to a head on April 4, 2000.

More than 120 officers descended on the couple's converted farmhouse and its 27 hectares at La Veaute.

Robert was taken to nearby Castres for questioning - one of two occasions he was quizzed. He was later released without charge.

The officers and forensic teams began searching the Lund's property at 7.30am after dividing the territory into three zones.

Two sniffer dogs named Nico and Tonix, which were trained to find dead bodies, were used. They searched ditches and the rocky ground for the slightest clue about what had happened to the "dame Anglaise" - The English woman.

Two pot-holing specialists were called to the farmland from Oloron-Sainte-Marie to search under ground holes. And the farm's septic sewage tank was drained for any possible clues.

The search continued in water, on land and below the surface and in the many rooms of the farm house - but to no avail. Evelyn had simply disappeared.

The last route she was believed to have taken from her friends' home in nearby Lombers was re-traced several times.

Then the search was extended to friends in England and Spain as concern for her safety grew. Lancashire police officers visited the area twice.

Hundreds of witness statements were taken as more than 250 lakes dotted across the sprawling countryside between Raysaac, Ralmont, Castres and Albi were combed for clues.

Evidence was gathered from banks and insurance companies.

But it took a lone horse rider - walking along a rarely used path to Roumgoux - and a glance across the lake when autumn evening sunlight caught the top of the vehicle, to propel the search forward.

The lake had never before fallen to such a level - some 16 to 18 metres - but thanks to luck the long-awaited discovery of Evelyn's vehicle had been made.

Forensic team left no stone unturned

FORENSIC teams searched for hair, traces of blood and other minute clues in their bid to piece together Evelyn Lund's final hours.

During the search of the Lund's farmhouse in La Veaute on April 4, a forensic and criminal expert was called on from a research team in nearby Albi.

According to a reports in the local media he was given the responsibility of "finding the slightest trace of evidence" from the farmhouse and surrounding land. Chief Jean- Luc Pont collected as much as possible - hair, possible traces of blood, soils. "I must get everything." he said at the time.

Then on the day of the discovery of the 4x4 in the lac de la Bancali forensicologist Jean-Marie Franques, was called in from Albi. He said: "In this type of case we need to move quickly for the first investigations.

"A body in water takes about four years to become nothing more than a skeleton."

Evelyn's body was found on the back seat of the Toyota Landcruiser. It was soon revealed, however, that initial tests had failed to discover a cause of death.

The public prosecutor, Madame Drouy-Ayril, said, however, that the body had "been in the water for more than six months."

The body and car were sent to Paris. Tests have been carried out at a variety of laboratories across France - each specialising in different research.

There are no universally accepted tests to prove drowning. But Diatom tests have also been carried out. These are based on bone marrow and aim to find out the ecological properties of the environment in which death took place.

Large quantities of water in the stomach found during autopsy would suggest life before immersion in water.

Michael Mysocki, lecturer in forensic anthropology at the University of Central Lancashire, has taken an interest in the case.

He said: "Over 22 months I would expect most of the soft tissue to decompose. If the soft tissue has decomposed in the water you will not find any evidence of injuries to a body.

"Only if the injuries have gone through and affected the bones can you say anything about cause of death.

"You may be able to say if they drowned if there was any presence of Diatom, a microscopic organism which gets into people's blood stream and then bones if someone has died in water.

"If there wasn't any Diatom that would indicate the person died elsewhere."

A naturally occurring phenomenon called Adipocere could provide the only forensic hope. It is a hard wax-type substance that forms in the fat under the skin in some cases when bodies have been in water for some time.

Mr Mysocki added: "If that happens wounds or injuries would be preserved."

'They told me to think about where I had put the body'

ROBERT Lund has revealed how he was twice taken into custody as part of the inquiry and was told: "I think you have got something to tell us."

He was interviewed in April 2000, four months after he had reported his wife and her car missing, and then again in December, 2001, after her body had been discovered.

Thousands of hours of interview tape have been recorded over the last 48 months as part of the investigation.

The 10 gendarmes at the centre of operation "Disappearance 81" have travelled to Spain and England in a bid to uncover the smallest detail that might unravel the mystery.

French and English authorities have co-operated with one another on the slightest of details.

"April 4 was one of the worst days," Robert said.

"The gendarmes arrived at 7.30am and by 1.30pm in the afternoon I was being taken into custody in Castres for questioning.

"I was not stressed by their questions, only not what was going on.

"They tried to keep everything from me.

"I knew I had done nothing wrong so I had nothing to worry about.

"I was told I was not allowed legal representation until after 20 hours of questioning.

"I was left in a cell at 1am for 10 minutes, despite being told I was supposed to have an hour's break.

"They told me to think about where I had put the body.

"The judge came in and asked me if I had read my rights, if I needed a doctor or a solicitor.

"Then they tried playing good cop, bad cop."

The second time he was taken into questioning was on December 19, 2001, after Evelyn's body was found.

Robert was working as a labourer near Albi at the time when his boss, Claude Quarin, told him to return home.

He said: "I was being asked the same questions over and over again and I was there throughout the night - for about 13 hours. All I could think about in the morning was getting back to work but in the end my boss sent me home."

He added: "The hardest part was thinking that nobody wanted to know."

"Life was just so empty without 'Ev' and I went over and over in my head what had happened.

"There was not a day went by when I didn't come down from the hill and pray I would see her car outside the farm.

"I was in denial, I thought she had just gone away somewhere.

"No-one wanted to know me and all sorts of rumours were going around about me, ranging from me sleeping with every woman in the village to a neighbour having killed her with an axe."

Those close to Evelyn have also been interviewed as part of the investigations.

Marianne Ramsey, 57, a former army captain who was the last friend to see Evelyn alive, recalls being interviewed as a suspect at the start of the inquiry.

She lives with her husband Alan at Bouscayrens in Lombers - a 40 minute drive away from the Lund's property.

"At first it was thought she might have gone to Costa Brava in Spain, to visit friends, or England," she said.

"There were posters dotted around the village appealing for information.

"My husband and I were interviewed separately by Castres gendarmes for six hours on two occasions.

"We were the last people to see her alive. I never felt there was a finger of suspicion, they had to follow that line of inquiry.

"They searched all our out buildings and sent frogmen into the lake near us. I was glad they did it so thoroughly. But being interviewed was very long.

"There was a French gendarme, English translator and someone recording pages and pages of manuscript so it was slow going and quite a palaver.

"They have been absolutely brilliant and the investigation has been second to none."

In France, the gendarmes organise the investigation in terms of interviews, under the direction of the chief investigating officer who in this case is based at the Tribunal de Grandes Instances at Castres, Madame Helene Ratineaud.

Her role is to carry out the inquiry and present a completed dossier of forensic information, witness statements and research to the public prosecutor, Madame Drouy-Ayril, who is based in the same office.

The public prosecutor works in the remit of French State business and will take a decision on how the case will proceed when Madame Ratineaud gives her the completed dossier.