Wife’s body is found in garden... 3 years after husband jailed
THE body of a pregnant mother who vanished 23 years ago has been found buried in her husband’s garden – three years after he was convicted of killing her.
Debbie Griggs, 34, was four months pregnant when she vanished in the middle of the night on May 5, 1999.
Her husband Andrew, now 59, claimed the auxiliary nurse and mother of three had walked out of their home in Deal, Kent, because she had post-natal depression – a condition she did not then have.
In reality, he was having an affair with a girl of just 15 and told friends he wished his wife was dead.
In 2019, Griggs was convicted of her murder and jailed for life by a judge, who said he suspected he had dumped her body at sea so he could pursue his underage affair and prevent his wife taking half of his business in a divorce.
But yesterday detectives revealed her body had finally been found in the back garden of a Dorset property Griggs moved to in 2001 after blundering officers closed the missing person investigation.
The shock discovery raises the prospect that he hid the body somewhere in 1999 and moved it two years later once police had shelved their inquiries.
Cold case officers examined the evidence again in 2019 and the subsequent trial was told Griggs was a controlling paedophile. Despite his conviction for murder, his sons believed he was innocent, launching an appeal in 2020 for help in tracing their mother. But now
‘Believed he was innocent’
they have learnt that her body was hidden in the garden of their childhood home. It was found following a tip-off.
Tests will now be carried out to establish how Mrs Griggs died. Teeth fragments confirmed her identity.
Her sister Wendie wrote on Facebook yesterday: ‘My sister has been found. In short, two years after he murdered her, he moved house and actually took her with him.’