The family of runaway Bradford teenager Donna Healey today criticised the police for failing to act when she disappeared 15 years ago.

They spoke out while facing an agonising wait to discover if a partially-mummified body dumped in a Leeds garden in 1991 belongs to the 18-year-old.

Experts are examining DNA taken from the corpse, which was found on a pile of builder's timber in the Chapel Allerton area, to conform whether it is Donna or not. The results will be known in about a month.

Last week, officers went to her family home in Roxby Street, Little Horton, where they retrieved several of Donna's personal items and took a DNA sample from her mother Lorraine Wilkinson to compare with the corpse's profile.

Police said they had not linked Donna to the body at the time it was discovered because she was not reported missing to them until 1997 - nine years after she walked out of her home on her 18th birthday.

But Donna's step-sister Carol Rhodes said this was untrue, insisting the family notified the police twice soon after her disappearance but they "did not seem interested."

Mrs Rhodes said: "Donna's mum reported her missing to the police around four or five months after she left and then again about a year later.

"She said the police didn't seem concerned as Donna had gone missing several times before and, because she had then turned 18, she could do what she liked."

Mrs Rhodes said the family were devastated by the recent developments and added: "Her mum is angry because she believes that more should be done at the time.

"If they would have listened to us at the time she might have been with us today."

But she added she understood it was difficult for the police to hold a major missing persons inquiry when they were dealing with someone aged over 18.

Today a West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "The first police record we have of Donna being reported missing is from 1997. We are continuing to liaise closely with Donna's family through this difficult time and give them all the support we can."

Detectives have appealed for information about Donna's whereabouts and lifestyle around the time she was last seen in Leeds in March, 1988. Anyone with information should contact (01274) 276459.