BECKY Godden's mum is still waiting to bury her daughter’s body - months after police promised to release it.

Last year, Swindon taxi cab killer Christopher Halliwell laughed as he was convicted of the murder of 20-year-old Becky, who was last seen in 2003.

It came five years after Halliwell led police to an Eastleach field, where investigators later found Becky’s remains.

Mum Karen Edwards has already been able to bury some of her daughter’s body – but some remains are still being held by police.

Police emailed her in March, saying that the “hold up is [our] fault”. Officers apologised that they were forced to “drag this out”.

The delay is believed to have been to allow Wiltshire Police to conduct DNA tests on Becky’s remains.

Karen Edwards said: “Becky’s been through so much. That little girl needs to be put to rest.”

Describing herself as “angry”, she questioned why the tests had taken police so long to complete.

“I’m still waiting to put more of Becky’s remains to rest. I was told it would be four to six weeks.”

She said that Becky’s skull had still not been found by police in the red mud of the Eastleach field.

When police excavated her shallow grave in 2011, they were unable to locate the girl’s skull and arms.

In a statement read at Halliwell’s trial for Becky’s murder, consultant pathologist Nicholas Marquez-Grant said that between 50 per cent and 75 per cent of the girl’s skeleton had been recovered.

Forensic archaeologist John Hunter told the court that it was unlikely that the head and arms were removed before burial.

He said it was possible that “the body was revisited and the head and arms removed”.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: “Some material obtained from the burial site has been established as that of Becky Godden-Edwards.

“There are currently ongoing tests taking place regarding other items discovered at the site.

"Once these tests are complete, and it has been confirmed that they belong to Becky, we will be in a position to return them to her family.

“We are keeping all interested parties updated when appropriate to do so.”

Earlier this week, a tearful Karen spoke to the Advertiser of her animal-loving “little girl”.

“As a girl she was quite shy. She always had her head down in a book. She loved playing ‘Afternoon Tea’.

“I felt she was always going to go places.”

But Becky’s problems began in her teenage years, falling in with friends who introduced her to drugs.

“She was a little girl in a woman’s body. She was very young for her age.

“Addiction is a terrible thing,” mum Karen said.

“Becky loved her family. But the pull of the drugs was greater.”

Earlier this year, Karen submitted a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, over the way her daughter’s case has been handled.

She questioned why it had taken five years for Halliwell to be convicted of Becky’s death when, she says, crucial evidence was already sitting in police stores - including a spade that was used to bury Becky’s body in a Cotswolds field.

Karen praised Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher, without whom she said her daughter would never have been found.

“There are families out here in Swindon who should thank their lucky stars [for Fulcher]. How many more girls could have gone missing [if Halliwell wasn’t jailed]?”