Police are no closer to establishing the identity of a skull found in wildlife presenter Sir David Attenborough’s Richmond garden.

The human remains, thought to belong to Julia Martha Thomas – a former resident murdered by her maid in the 1800s – were taken away for scientific examination last week but police said identification of the skull could take weeks.

Don Walker, a human osteologist in the Museum of London’s archaeology department, said: “When you study bones or a skeleton you try to find out the age of the individual and you can do that by looking at various parts of the skeleton.

“Unfortunately, in many cases, especially if you just get a bit of the body you can only say if it is a juvenile or an adult – as it limits the range of aging you can do.”

Police appealed for relatives of Mrs Thomas to contact them so DNA tests can be carried out.