Armed manhunt ends with businessman’s arrest over wife’s village murder

Company director and father of four found in capital after 30 firearms police storm busy train

A COMPANY director was arrested on suspicion of murder last night after the discovery of his wife’s body at their village home prompted a 24-hour manhunt.

Armed police launched a countywide search for Stuart Andrews, 54, after his wife Caroline, 52, was found dead inside their rented £500,000 bungalow.

Up to 30 officers carrying guns piled on to a busy London-bound train on Thursday night before police eventually tracked down Mr Andrews in the capital the following afternoon.

The couple lived with their two youngest daughters, Polly, 19, and Kitty, 14, as well as two dogs, in the quiet Kent village of Benenden, where Mr Andrews runs Cruxnet, a small IT business.

It is understood that the landlord had recently given the family three months’ notice to leave the property.

Colleagues of Mrs Andrews, a supply teacher at Benenden Primary School, described her as a “lovely” woman and said they were devastated.

She was said to be deeply proud of her two daughters and sons, Charles, 26, and Henry, 23, who had both graduated from university.

Their neighbour Derek Catlin, 71, a retired chartered surveyor, described the family as “normal, very pleasant people” and said he had spoken to police about the incident.

He said: “We knew them as neighbours but I feel shock really because there was nothing to make us think there was anything peculiar.”

A friend of Mrs Andrews, who works at the school and asked not to be named, said: “She was just lovely, one of the nicest people you could wish to meet.”

Gill Knox, the school’s head teacher, said staff were “shocked and saddened”, adding: “Caroline has been a loved and well respected supply teacher here for a number of years, who has enriched the lives of the many children she has taught.”

Detectives made extensive searches to locate Mr Andrews after being first called to the cottage on Thursday afternoon.

A post mortem examination of Mrs Andrews took place yesterday before the inquiry formally became a murder case.

A Kent Police spokesman said: “Police searches throughout parts of Kent, including the rail network, had been ongoing since the afternoon of February 4 and the man was located in the London area this afternoon and taken to a hospital for treatment to injuries.”

Stuart Curran, 37, who works at The Bull pub in Benenden, said: “It’s like

Midsomer Murders here. “It’s a close knit village and everyone knows everyone and if they don’t it’s because they are new.”