Grief etched on her face, widow returns to house where car thieves ran down husband
THE grief- stricken wife of a former Royal Navy officer murdered outside his home by car thieves yesterday visited the scene of the tragedy.
Accompanied by relatives and a police family liaison officer, Jessica Samwell, 33, went to the Victorian house she shared with Michael Samwell, 35, to collect her belongings.
The former lieutenant was struck and may have been run over repeatedly with his own £35,000 Audi S3 as he tried to stop thieves stealing the vehicle.
The street outside the house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, yesterday remained under cordon as forensic officers conducted searches.
Detectives also continued to question a 21- year- old man arrested over Mr Samwell’s killing in the early hours of Sunday.
The man remained in custody last night as police said they are now hunting other suspects including those in a BMW who collected Mr Samwell’s attackers after they crashed their victim’s car three miles from the scene.
Mrs Samwell, an accountant at Dock 10, a television production company in Manchester’s MediaCityUK, did not comment as she visited her home yester- day. One neighbour said she had screamed her husband’s name and desperately called for help as he lay dying in the street.
Mr Samwell, who was in the Royal Navy for 12 years before leaving in 2014 to work for civil nuclear contractors Atkins, had heard a loud bang at 3am on Sunday. He went to investigate, followed by his wife, before confronting the intruders and trying to stop them driving away.
The neighbour said: ‘I heard his wife screaming. She was screaming for help and his name.’
Former submariners were among those who turned up to pay their respects at the murder scene yesterday. One wrote on social media: ‘Hero and former shipmate of mine taken from us by someone who is a waste of the oxygen they breathe. Mike Samwell HMS Tireless. Go well Sir. Greater Manchester Police… find the killers of Mike Samwell; he was a submariner, served on Tireless during explosion (in) 2007. A true hero.’
Police are appealing for any information on the blue BMW 1 series car believed to have been used by the offenders to flee.