Police dig field in hunt for farmer’s wife ‘fed to pigs’
POLICE and soldiers have begun digging up a field in the hunt for the body of a woman murdered by her farmer husband in 2002.
At the time of her disappearance, it was feared Tina Baker could have been fed to her husband’s pigs.
The 41- year- old vanished 18 years ago after leaving her SAS reservist husband Martin to move in with her lover.
Mr Baker, now 68, was jailed for a minimum of 14 years in 2006 for Tina’s murder.
He had become consumed with jealousy when his wife told him she wanted a divorce so she could live with Derek Poplett, a friend she had met at a school reunion.
Baker feared he would lose their
‘Specks of dried blood found’
farm in Chobham, Surrey, in any settlement. The former soldier had threatened to feed his previous wife, Gillian Hopkin, to pigs.
Soon after Mrs Baker’s disappearance, he sold off the animals that were kept on his 14-acre smallholding, leading detectives to check pigswill and manure for traces of her body.
Sources said yesterday the fresh dig had begun after specks of dried blood had been found on a stretch of farmland in Bisley, three miles away from the farm.
Last night Mrs Baker’s father, Geoffrey Doyle, said the family were hopeful the development could mean they could finally lay their daughter to rest.
Surrey Police, the Army and specialist forensic teams were yesterday combing Priest Lane Farm as part of the dig, which has been codenamed Operation Sally.
Mr Doyle said: ‘We are surprised that after all these years they have found new evidence.
‘It would be a huge relief if they are able to find Tina and we can have some closure. It has been a very long time and my wife Jean has never gotten over it.’
Baker was already serving a fouryear sentence for growing cannabis plants on his farm when he was convicted of murder.
Mrs Baker had arranged to meet Mr Poplett at Heathrow on July 8, 2002, but never arrived. Police were unable to find her car or mobile phone.
Despite a huge investigation by Surrey Police including a £10,000 reward offered on BBC1’s Crimewatch, her body was never found.
Baker had pretended he had no idea where his wife had gone, keeping up the facade by pestering her parents and friends about whether they had heard from her.
He also made a number of phone calls to a friend who ran a scrapyard, which police believe involved arrangements for disposing of her car. Though Baker reported his wife missing, he was so confident she would never come back that he turned the couple’s bungalow into a cannabis farm and let her name be used on a friend’s car registration documents. He was charged more than four years later when police became convinced she would never be found alive and he was the only suspect.
Announcing the week-long dig, Detective Inspector Chris Rambour from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: ‘ It is extremely important to us that we do everything we can to provide answers and closure for Tina’s family and friends.’