‘He had Parkinson’s – he was no murderer’
Family demands truth in ‘silver serial killer’ mystery
RELATIVES of a couple identified as possible victims of a ‘silver serial killer’ insisted last night they always believed that they were murdered.
The deaths of Michael Higgins, 59, and his wife Violet, 76, are among five ‘strikingly similar’ cases which may have been wrongly dismissed as murdersuicides by police.
They were included in a report, compiled by a senior coroner’s officer and leaked to a newspaper, that is currently being reviewed by Cheshire police.
Mr and Mrs Higgins were found dead at their home in Didsbury, Manchester, in February 2000. An inquest found Mr Higgins, who had Parkinson’s disease, had beaten his former police officer wife with a rolling pin and stabbed her in the neck with scissors.
He then apparently committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat and garrotting himself with a coat hanger.
But yesterday Mr Higgins’ niece, Adele Street, and sister-in-law, Lily Higgins, said they had doubted that he was capable of such a terrible crime.
Mrs Street said at the family home in Chorlton, Manchester: ‘They were 100 per cent murdered – without a doubt. He had severe
Parkinson’s disease – he was really shaky. He was not capable of doing such things. We have never, ever thought that he did it.
‘He just did not have the strength. The new investigation is very welcome but it is heartbreaking for the family to go through all this.’
Mrs Street dismissed suggestions Mr Higgins snapped because his wife had threatened to leave him and put him in a care home.
‘That is rubbish,’ she said. ‘They were very decent, law-abiding people. There must be someone who had gained their confidence.’
Mrs Street’s mother, Lily, who is married to Mr Higgins’ younger brother, Daniel, added: ‘He was not a violent man. We just want the truth to come out for the future generations of the family.’
Another of the cases included in the report involve the deaths of Donald and Auriel Ward, who lived in the Cheshire town of Wilmslow.
They died in 1999, three years after another couple, Howard and
Bea Ainsworth, whose bodies were discovered in similar grisly circumstances less than two miles away.
Mrs Ward’s hairdresser, Mary Colborn-Roberts, who saw her every week, told the Mail she welcomed a new investigation because she had always thought the case was ‘very, very strange’.
Retired chemist Donald, 73, is said to have bludgeoned Auriel, 68, before stabbing her in the neck and suffocating her with a pillow. He was found with a slit throat and a knife embedded in his heart.
A pathologist concluded that Mr Ward’s wounds were self-inflicted and, after six months, the case was closed as a murder-suicide.
Mrs Colborn-Roberts said one of the couple’s sons had told her he doubted his father – who could have devised a kinder way to kill them both because of his knowledge of medicines – was capable of such violence. She added: ‘They were a close, loving couple. I think there are questions to be asked.’