New Delhi/Lucknow, Sep 15 (IANS): Investigators can hope of finally solving the Aarushi Talwar murder case as the Noida teenager's mobile phone, a crucial piece of evidence that was missing for over a year, has been recovered from an Uttar Pradesh town, Delhi Police said Monday.

"Aarushi's cellphone was recovered by Delhi Police's Crime Branch and handed over to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation)," Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

He, however, did not say how and when the missing piece of evidence was found.

According to police, the Nokia N72 model was recovered from Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr town.

Bulandshahr Superintendent of Police (City) J.K. Sahi said a woman who once worked as maid for the Talwar family had passed it on to a resident of the Uttar Pradesh town.

Aarushi, 14, was found murdered in her Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida May 16, 2008. The family's domestic help Hemraj, who was missing then and was suspected to have killed her, was found murdered a day later on the terrace of the house.

The sensational case has remained an unsolved riddle.

All those who were picked up for interrogation in the initial weeks of the murder - Aarushi's dentist-father Rajesh Talwar, his medical assistant Krishna and two other neighbourhood domestic helps Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal - have been freed after a period of detention while the CBI still continues to hunt for material evidence.

Despite an intense search, the agency had not been able to locate the mobiles of Arushi and Hemraj and the weapon used to slit the two victims' throats.