Zalkalns’ body was found hanging in woods in Boston Manor Park, just 5 minutes from where the 14-year-old was last seen
The schoolgirl’s body was found concealed in a canal in West London last week, just days before police found Latvia-born Zalkalns.
Police say that there is no third party involved in Zalklan’s death.
QUESTION TIME APOLOGISES TO FAMILY OF ALICE GROSS FOLLOWING 'INSENSITIVE COMMENTS'
The 41-year-old’s body was ‘badly decomposed’, suggesting that he died several weeks ago, possibly around the same time Alice disappeared.
On the day of Alice’s disappearance, Zalkalns entered his off-license with an unidentified teenage boy.
The shopkeeper told a UK newspaper- following his own questioning with police- that: “He seemed out of it, he could have been on some sort of drug.
“I thought the whole thing was suspicious. Zalkalns was unshaven, he had a grey jumper on and he looked really scruffy. He was smelly too."
Prime Minister David Cameron has since released a statement on the murder investigation, describing it as a “horrific case” before saying: “Anyone with a daughter will have just felt sickened by what has happened and what that poor family has had to go through.”
There are now calls for an investigation into how the hunt for Alice and suspect Arnis Zalkalns was carried out amid revelations that the areas where their bodies were found had apparently already been searched.
The hunt for Alice was one of the largest conducted by police in London since the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in 2005.