Missing mum: Ex took 2 days to report that she’d vanished
‘They argued a lot of the time’
POLICE have revealed that the sudden disappearance of a mother-of-five at the centre of a murder probe was not reported by the former partner she was living with for two days – as yet further details of their ‘volatile’ relationship emerged.
Sarah Wellgreen, 46, vanished ‘without a trace’ from the £330,000 four-bedroom home she shared with her ex-partner Ben Lacomba, 38, and their three youngest children over a fortnight ago.
Worried family members told how it was completely out of character for the beautician to just up and leave – particularly as the doting mother was excited having just found out she had a new job.
The day afterwards, her boyfriend Neil James, 45, said he began raising the alarm with her mother and eldest son after receiving no reply to his morning text to her.
They, in turn, got in touch with Mr Lacomba, who was with her on the night she vanished – Tuesday, October 9 – but he reported it to the police on Thursday, October 11.
Mr James said: ‘We agreed on the Thursday morning that we’d report it to the police. What I said to Lewis, the eldest son, was, “Let’s not me do it because it’s just a boyfriend and they’ll think it’s just a tiff or something like that. It’s going to have more impact if a family member does it.” Unfortunately, he asked Ben Lacomba to do it, which meant that he was the key focal point for the police.’ Detectives quizzed Mr Lacomba, a taxi driver with a Nerf fun gun hobby, for three days before releasing him pending further enquiries.
The former lovers, who had not rekindled their romance, moved back into their house in New Ash Green, Kent, together despite a previously ‘volatile’ relationship involving several court battles, friends said.
Yesterday, it emerged their living situation had caused a ‘serious family rift’. A 31-year- old neighbour, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Mail: ‘Ben’s mother Marilyn had been living in the house as she was helping Ben with their three young children. But she was furious when Sarah came back on the scene.
‘Marilyn lives nearby but she told Ben he should have nothing to do with Sarah and told him if she returned she would be moving out. It caused a serious family rift but Ben wanted Sarah back home and Marilyn moved out. After that happened, Sarah could often be heard shouting at Ben. The pair of them could be heard arguing a lot of the time. ‘She was a strange woman and seemed to flit from different men to different men all the time. She would leave clothing at their flats so she could return when she wanted.’ Yesterday, Mrs Lacomba, 64, was not available to comment at her flat in New Ash Green.
Another neighbour revealed Mrs Lacomba had sold a property she owned in Spain to help her son buy his home in Kent, which he purchased in April 2007 for £174,995 with a mortgage.
Police have escalated Miss Wellgreen’s disappearance to a ‘potential’ murder enquiry and yesterday continued to search woodland near Fawkham, Kent, four miles from her home. Searches in Dartford town centre were also continuing.