... THE THREE MEN BEING QUESTIONED

BEN FIELD

A Baptist minister’s son, Field describes himself as a lecturer in Companies House records connected with the firm he cofounded to sell Mr Farquhar’s written works.

During his time lodging with Mr Farquhar, the 27-year-old also worked as a carer in the local nursing home where his landlord was admitted.

Neighbours in Maids Moreton recalled how the keen weightlifter had converted Mr Farquhar’s garage into a makeshift gym, and gave the pensioner a dog called Kipling as a Christmas present.

THOMAS FIELD

The younger brother of Ben Field studied music at King’s College, Cambridge.

The 22- year- old researcher splits his time between high Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where he works for a recruitment firm, and Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he recently took up a part-time position at a convenience store close to the family home.

Neighbours said the keen tennis player lived at the family home in Olney. Field was seen in the street outside the address with Ben over the Christmas holidays. The brothers’ sister, hannah, 28, is believed to have moved out of the house. she could not be contacted yesterday.

MARTYN SMITH

Smith, 31, is an amateur magician and self-proclaimed mathematical genius. A website proclaims him to be ‘one of the most unique minds in the art of magic’.

But there is little evidence of him conjuring anything beyond the confines of his bedroom, at his father’s home in a hamlet just outside the Cornish village of Stithians. A profile picture online shows him shooting himself in the head with a pistol – and a pack of playing cards flying from the back of his skull.