Donald Ward and wife Auriel Ward were found dead in the Wilmslow home, Cheshire in 1999 in an apparent murder-suicide. Photo / BBC
Donald Ward and wife Auriel Ward were found dead in the Wilmslow home, Cheshire in 1999 in an apparent murder-suicide. Photo / BBC
In each case the husband apparently went berserk, hitting his wife on the head, before stabbing her and killing himself. All were recorded as murder suicides by various coroners.
Now a confidential new report has found that the cases could be linked to the same offender - and that a serial killer could be on the loose in the north west of England.
The two suspected brutal double murders from 20 years ago in Wilmslow, Cheshire, are being re-examined.
In the first case, from 1996, the bodies of Howard and Bea Ainsworth were found in what police declared a murder-suicide, perpetrated by Howard Ainsworth. This was followed three years later by the apparent murder suicide of Donald and Auriel Ward.
In both instances the couples were in a loving, devoted relationship with no history of violence. Yet each case involved extreme violence - Beatrice, 78, was found with a knife in her forehead – and their bodies were found on their blood-soaked beds in similar positions.
The parallels, reported by the Sunday Times, were first noticed by the former Cheshire coroner's officer, Christine Hurst, who allegedly raised her concerns with her colleagues in the police, but to no avail.
Yesterday, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Hurst said, "I kept the files and passed them on".
Stanley Wilson and Peggie Wilson died in a February 2011 in an apparent murder-suicide. Photo / Cumbria Police
She said that she has "no idea" why the cases were not judged as being linked earlier on, saying she presumed that it had been investigated but the two cases couldn't be connected.
She added: "Things are different now. They've got much more scientific evidence."
Fresh eyes
When Hurst retired in 2017, she passed the files on to her successor Stephanie Davies, who re-examined the information and also found two other apparent murder-suicides in Greater Manchester – both within a half-hour drive – which fitted the pattern.
In the two uncovered cases, from 2000 and 2008, there were again two elderly couples found dead inside their homes. In each case there was no history of violence within the marriage.
Last month, Davies filed a 179-page report into the five murder-suicides – she also found another case in Cumbria in 2011 - to Cheshire police. The force launched a review last weekend and alerted the nearby forces.
In her report, Davies asked Steve Chancellor, a police forensic investigator from America, to review the Ainsworth and Ward cases. Chancellor came to a different conclusion to the two police investigations, arguing that both were likely to be double murders with "a very real possibility" that they were the "same offender" – though he could not be 100 per cent sure.
The Ainsworths were found dead together in bed in their property on Gravel Lane in Wilmslow. Bea Ainsworth had a blood-soaked pillow over her face and had been stabbed in her forehead with a knife, as well as being hit several times over the head with a hammer, while her husband had a plastic bag over his head.
A suicide note nearby, purportedly written by Howard Ainsworth, said his wife had become delirious and that the couple had lived "a good life together", but the way the pair had died did not correspond to an apparent mercy killing.
In the other Wilmslow case, Auriel Ward had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a ceramic hot water bottle and suffocated while her husband, Donald, who had been stabbed three times in the groin, had a gaping cut across his throat and a knife embedded in his heart. She was found with a pillow left partially over her face.
In both cases, the hemline of the woman's nightie had been pulled up to the hip.
New forensic technqiues
Davies wrote in her report that it is not her intention to "disrepute the findings of those original investigators who worked on these cases 20 years ago" but that "the knowledge that investigators have these days surrounding forensics, blood stain pattern analysis and crime scene interpretation is more advanced."
She added that she decided to raise the cases with the police because of "the concern that there is an outstanding offender, who could still be offending, and who needs to be brought to justice".
Her report warned: "This individual will not stop killing until someone or something stops him."
In it, she calls on the National Crime Agency and Interpol to urgently review cases in Europe and conclude whether there are any more related murders.
Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for the northwest, told the Sunday Times: "The concerns raised in this report need to be taken very seriously. We could potentially have a serial killer in our midst. There needs to be a proper review of these cases and others which carry similar hallmarks."
A spokesman for Cheshire Police told The Telegraph: "We are in receipt of the report and it is being reviewed.
"This is a piece of research which has been undertaken by the staff member, independently from her role within the constabulary.
"As with any case that has been closed, where new information comes to light it is reviewed and acted upon if appropriate.
"We have notified Greater Manchester Police and Cumbria constabulary."
Who are the suspected victims?
Case 1 – Howard and Beatrice Ainsworth
April 28, 1996. Howard, 79, Beatrice Ainsworth, 78, Wilmslow, Cheshire
Howard Ainsworth, 79, was a former parks gardener who lived on Gravel Lane, Wilmslow, with his 78-year-old wife Beatrice – known as Bea. They were both found dead in their bed on April 28, 1996, after a neighbour – who had spoken with Howard Ainsworth the previous day - spotted that the curtains were still drawn at 11.30am and had failed to contact them. The inquest heard that they were lifetime members of the Scottish Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
Case 2 – Donald and Auriel Ward
November 26, 1999. Donald, 73, Auriel Ward, 68, Wilmslow, Cheshire
Donald and Auriel Ward had been married for 45 years and lived in their cul-de-sac home for more than 30 years before they were found dead in bed together by their neighbour on November 26, 1999.
Donald Ward and wife Auriel Ward were found dead in the Wilmslow home, Cheshire in 1999 in an apparent murder-suicide. Photo / BBC
Donald Ward, 73, a retired industrial chemist and his 68-year-old wife, a former nursery school teacher, adored their grandchildren and were always smartly dressed. They were well-liked in Wilmslow, with one resident recalling that Ward would wear a trilby hat which he would "tip" when he walked past. The couple had been seen being affectionate to one-another just days before they were found dead.
Case 3 – Michael and Violet Higgins
February 21, 2000. Michael, 59, Violet Higgins, 76, East Didsbury, Manchester
Violet Higgins, 76, a former policewoman, lived with her husband Michael, 59, a former security guard in Didsbury. Michael Higgins suffered from Parkinson's disease and his wife had threatened to put him in a home, according to evidence at the inquest. He had also visited a solicitor to discuss a divorce, but despite this, the coroner commented that the couple had enjoyed a happy marriage and friends had described them as "the perfect couple". The retired security guard's brother said he was not "capable of hurting anyone". They were found dead together in their home on February 21, 2000.
Case 4 – Kenneth and Eileen Martin
November 10, 2008. Kenneth, 77, Eileen Martin, 76, Urmston, Manchester
Kenneth Martin, 77, and his 76-year-old wife Eileen were found dead in their home in Urmston, Manchester, on November 10, 2008, the eve of their 55th wedding anniversary. Martin, a former steel erector, was found dead alongside his wife, who was a retired printer and suffering from dementia. Martin was frail and living with prostate cancer and had expressed his desire not to let his wife become a burden on their children if he died first, telling his daughter "when it's my time to go, it'll be her time to go".
February 18, 2011. Stanley, 92, Peggie Wilson, 89, Kendal, Cumbria
Former quarry worker Stanley Wilson, 92, "worshipped the ground" his wife Peggie, 89, "walked on", according to their son Graham. Wilson lived with his retired teacher wife in Kendal, Cumbria, and they enjoyed Scrabble and bowling in a happy retirement in which they were often spotted around town holding hands.
Stanley Wilson and Peggie Wilson died in a February 2011 in an apparent murder-suicide. Photo / Cumbria Police
They were found dead together in their home on February 18, 2011, soon after Wilson had been released from the Royal Lancaster Infirmary with unfounded fears that his family were trying to poison him.
