Tributes have been paid to a woman found dead in Ribbleton during Thursday (7 February) morning.

Rosie Darbyshire, 27, from Ribbleton was found at 2am on a pavement close to the junction of Pope Lane and Village Drive.

Preston Police have described her injuries as coming from a ‘brutal and sustained assault’.

A post mortem has confirmed Rosie died as a result of serious head injuries.

Rosie’s family released a statement: “It doesn’t seem real that our crazy, wig-wearing, talented, goofy Rosie won’t be bursting through the door in song anymore.

“We are utterly heartbroken and don’t doubt that this devastating news will be affecting so many more people than we could ever imagine. We ask for time to grieve and attempt to process this as a family.

“Rosie’s wonderful son is our priority right now.”

Owner of Townhouse Coffee in Friargate, Bernice Marie Newton, paid tribute.

She told Blog Preston: “Rosie worked with us last summer. Only for a few months but she was a total blast.

“We all totally buzzed off her.

“The whole team at Town House is gutted. She was class to work with and such a sweetheart.”

Friends of Rosie have now launched a fundraising campaign.

A murder investigation was launched from the early hours of Thursday morning with a 25-year-old man from Preston arrested on suspicion of murder close to where Rosie was found. He has now been charged with murder.

Forensics officers worked at the scene in Village Drive throughout Thursday.

Detective Chief Inspectgor Geoff Hurst said: “Firstly my thoughts are with Rosie’s family who are understandably devastated. We have family liaison officers providing them support at this extremely difficult and sad time.

“We are treating this as a murder and believe that Rosie’s attacker was known to her. We do not believe there is any kind of wider threat to the local community.

“I have a team of people working on getting to the bottom of what happened to Rosie and would like to reiterate my appeal to anyone who may have seen or heard anything in the area at the time to get in touch as soon as possible as you could have vital information. There will be extra officers out and about in the vicinity of where this tragic incident happened so please speak to them if you have any concerns or you know something you want to share with us.”

Police originally released information during Thursday morning to say a man’s body had been found but released an updated statement at lunchtime to say the body was of a woman.

Read more: See the latest news and headlines across Preston

Anyone with information about the incident can call 101 quoting log 433 of February 7.