Toyboy aged 26 ‘ killed British lover, 62, with shovel then dug grave in garden’
A BRITISH woman who retired to live on a farm in Bulgaria was allegedly beaten to death with a shovel by her toyboy lover.
Former legal secretary Tina Eyre, 62, was found in a pool of blood in her barn.
Her 26-year-old lover was caught digging a hole in her back garden before running away when he was confronted.
Miss Eyre had not been seen by neighbours for several days before her death. The local postmistress raised the alarm after she failed to answer her phone.
She alerted the mayor who asked two other British expatriates to
‘It was clear he was still in the village’
check on her. The pair found the suspect digging a hole in Miss Eyre’s garden when they arrived at the farm.
When challenged, the man, a Bulgarian Roma gipsy, initially said he had been asked to look after Miss Eyre’s dogs.
He then fled, but one of the expats managed to photograph him and a manhunt began.
The suspect – who has not been named by authorities – was later found hiding at the home of an older local man and handed over to criminal investigators.
Miss Eyre had lived alone for four years in the town of Veliko Tarnovo, in the north of the country.
She looked after dogs and piglets and taught locals to paint. Her body was discovered when the property was searched. Bulgarian police believe she was killed with the spade that the suspect was seen digging with.
The man, from a nearby village, had apparently been spotted visiting Tina – known as Roxanne – on multiple occasions, although he had not been seen for around a year.
He admitted murder, according to local news reports, and said he had acted out of ‘jealousy’.
Mayor Hristo Hristov told reporters that he took part in the arrest along with the local chief of police, Petar Petrov.
Mr Hristov said: ‘It was clear that he [the suspect] was still in the village. We quickly rejected the main road because there were dozens of road maintenance workers and he wouldn’t have wanted to risk being seen.
‘We tied some things together and went looking for “Grandpa Georgia”, who we thought might know this person.
‘Petar, the experienced inspector, immediately realised that Grandpa Georgia had guests.’
Mayor Hristov said he did not know whether the suspect resisted or tried to escape.
But he added: ‘Upon entering, I saw him lying on the ground with Petar’s knee on his back.’
Miss Eyre, who was originally from Gloucester, had lived in Veliko Tarnovo after moving from the UK. According to her LinkedIn online CV, she spent 17 years from 1999 to 2016 working for the law firm Clifford Chance.
Her brother, Dean, yesterday confirmed the news and said the family were angry they had not been contacted about her death by the Foreign Office.
He said: ‘We haven’t been told a thing by the Government, we were told the news by my sister’s friends in Bulgaria.’
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘ We are supporting the family of a British woman following her tragic death in Bulgaria, and are in contact with the Bulgarian authorities.’