‘Wardrobe killer’ made hospital confession
THE husband of murder victim Joanne Lee made a ‘tearful hospital bedside confession’ to gardaí, saying he killed his wife in a drug-fuelled rage – before he later took his own life.
Keith Lee, who was 42, was found dead in his prison cell at Dublin’s Mountjoy jail shortly after 8am yesterday. He took his own life by hanging.
He had been in a wheelchairaccessible cell, having broken his legs when he attempted to jump to his death in February as gardaí broke into the apartment in Ranelagh, south Dublin, where he was ‘hiding out’ with his 38year-old wife’s dead body.
The murder suspect had stuffed his prison bed with clothing and pillows to ‘give the impression’ he was asleep in bed when checked by staff.
It is understood the accused wife-killer was checked by prison staff at 6.30am yesterday in his cell and was sitting on his bed but shortly after 8am he was discovered dead in the en-suite bathroom.
It is understood that Lee – who had been charged with the murder of his wife Joanne – gave gardaí a full statement admitting to strangling his wife to death just weeks before his suicide.
The Irish Daily Mail can reveal he made ‘stark admissions’ to At court: Keith Lee last month officers at his hospital bedside just days before he was charged with her murder.
He is said to have made ‘frank admissions of guilt’.
As previously reported, Lee had been having an affair and when his wife found out ‘problems in the relationship ensured’.
He ‘tearfully’ admitted to his wife’s killing from his hospital bed. He told detectives that the night before he killed Joanne he had consumed a large quantity of drugs, including cocaine and pills, and stormed out of the Ranelagh apartment following a ‘blistering row’ with his wife.
However, he returned the following morning and strangled her to death. He told gardaí he was still in a drug-induced state when he murdered his wife.
He claimed to have ‘little recollection’ of strangling her. He also claimed Joanne attacked him first – however, gardaí ‘do not believe’ this account from the suspected killer ‘whatsoever’.
Lee was arrested last month shortly after being transferred from Dublin’s St James’s Hospital to a step-down facility. He had been a ‘known suicide risk’, following his attempt to end his life when gardaí raided the flat where his wife was found dead.
A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said yesterday: ‘An inmate passed away in custody in Mountjoy Prison... Foul play is not suspected. Three separate investigations into the
Said he had ‘little recollection’
death are under way.’ The Irish Prison Service, the Inspector of Prisons and An Garda Síochána are all separately investigating the death.
Lee had reported Joanne missing two days before her body was found. Gardaí found a Nissan Micra which she often drove parked outside the building in Ranelagh. They broke into the apartment, and found Lee three floors below, bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted injury and with broken limbs.
A short time later, officers discovered Joanne’s body wrapped in a sleeping bag in a wardrobe. She is believed to have been dead for more than 48 hours.
Lee made no reply to the murder charge when he was brought before the Criminal Courts of Justice last month.