A MAJOR police investigation is underway after the suspicious death of a woman at her home in Darlington.

Emergency services were alerted at about 1.30pm on Monday when members of the woman's family reported finding her in one of the downstairs rooms of her property in Scott Terrace.

They had not seen her for at least two days and got no response when they called round to the terraced house at lunchtime, but they could hear her dog barking from inside.

They discovered her body when they forced their way into the house. When police and paramedics arrived the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police cordoned off the area around the house, in the North Road area of town, and carried out a forensic examination of the premises.

House-to-house inquiries were carried out in the street and the surrounding area and an incident room was set up in Darlington police station.

Police said they are satisfied they know the identity of the victim, a woman in her late 30s, but would not release her name until at least Tuesday morning. It is understood the woman was the only occupier of the house.

Detective Superintendant Andy Reddick, who is leading a team of about 25 investigators, said he did not want to speculate how the woman had died.

A post-mortem examination is expected to take place sometime on Tuesday, which Det Supt Reddick said should provide a much clearer line of inquiry.

He added: "I can confirm that we are treating this woman's death as suspicious and we are committing all our available resources into finding the person or persons responsible."

He urged anyone with any information which might help the investigation to contact the incident room or Crimestoppers.

Anyone who has seen or heard anything out of the ordinary in the street since the weekend should ring 0845-60-60-365 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555111.