37 years after wife vanished, man arrested for murder
A FARMER aged 86 has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife after human bones were found 37 years after she went missing.
David Venables was held after a dawn raid at his bungalow yesterday. On July 12, maintenance workers discovered body parts in a bag in a septic tank at a farm where he used to live.
His wife Brenda mysteriously vanished from the address in the Malvern Hills in 1982, aged 8. Yesterday, forensics officers could be seen carrying out searches at his £300,000 bungalow in the village of Kempsey, Worcestershire. He remained in custody last night.
The pensioner used to run a nursery and had a piggery at the farm where the bones were found. It was sold to a relative for £ 67,000 five years ago and he moved into the bungalow nearby.
Locals said rumours circulated after Mrs Venables went missing. One claimed Mr Venables told people his wife had moved to Spain, while others were led to believe she took her own life.
In May 1982, Mr Venables told the Worcester Evening News he had woken to find his wife gone, and said she had been depressed after having flu.
He said: ‘I haven’t the faintest idea what has happened to her.’
At the time, police used a helicopter to search the countryside. The couple are not thought to have children.
Mrs Venables’s sister Rita, 88, said she had been informed by detectives of Mr Venables’s arrest. She said: ‘It’s just such a shock after all these years.’
Neighbours said Mr Venables was a quiet man who ‘kept himself to himself’. A spokesman for West Mercia Police said detectives were awaiting DNA results but added that ‘general circumstances lead us to believe’ that the remains were likely to be those of Mrs Venables.