Vanessa Easton remembers Diane Stewart, her neighbor for many years, as a smiling, affectionate and outgoing school secretary.
“She was a charming person with whom anyone could strike up a conversation” , says Vanessa, who has lived across the street from the Stewarts — Diane, her husband Ian and their two children — in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, since 1543.
They used to take care of each other’s cats when they went on vacation and enjoyed the neighborhood fireworks together.
“They seemed like a perfect and happy family“, Vanessa describes to the Stewart. “It was so obvious how much they loved their children! Diane was full of love for them”.
But the 25 June 2010 everything changed.
Stewart said he came home from shopping and found his wife from 47 years, who had been washing clothes, thrown in soil. Shortly after, she was declared dead.
An investigation that same year concluded that the woman had suffered a sudden death from epilepsy (SUDEP), which causes the death of some 600 people each year.
Diane and Ian Stewart in one of the neighborhood fireworks shows. (Photo: CREDIT IMAGE)Although Diane had not suffered no epileptic seizures in 11 years, his death did not raise suspicions.
But they did arise with the death six years later of a second woman: Stewart’s fiancée, children’s book author Helen Bailey.
Stewart had secretly drugged and suffocated Helen to inherit her fortune of more than $5 million, and dumped her body in a cesspool under her home in Royston, Hertfordshire , in the south of England.
The suspicions
Convicted of the murder of Helen in 2017, the police focused their attention on the death of Diane.
The investigation faced several important obstacles.
Not only was Diane’s body cremated, but complete toxicology tests were not performed during the post-mortem examination from 2010 .
The only analysis was on an antiepileptic drug.
Ian Stewart drugged and suffocated Helen Bailey. (Photo: SOUTH BEDS NEWS AGENCY)
It was Stewart who authorized the cremation. During his testimony at trial, prosecutors accused him of doing it “so that there would be very little that could be turned against him.”
However, the detectives followed a rather unusual path.
The brain as evidence
Diane had donated her brain to medical research, something Stewart consented to. Without that consent, this vital source of evidence would have been destroyed.
Superintendent Jerome Kent, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crimes Unit, says they discovered the brain was kept in the hospital.
Explain that power accessing Diane’s brain was “absolutely crucial” and that without it “a conviction could not have been guaranteed”.
“It was also important to remember that if she had died of natural causes, we wanted to be able to tell her the family that their concerns and suspicions were unfounded”.
According to neuropathologist Colin Smith, from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, the use of stored brain tissue as part of a police investigation is extremely unusual .
“I’ve never encountered that situation before,” he tells the BBC.
But how did science help catch the murderer?
“Restricted” breathing
A team of scientists and pathologists were recruited to re-examine Diane’s brain tissue.
Safa al Sarraj, a neuropathologist at King’s College Hospital in London, told the jury that he found “brain changes that they consisted of early ischemia”, something he defined as “cell damage due to lack of oxygen and blood supply“.
The scientist said no no trace of ischemia would be expected to be found in “a healthy breathing human being”. minutes”.
Another expert witness, neuropathologist Kieren Allinson, found “no evidence of a recent seizure,” although he added that this did not mean that it was not a death due to epilepsy.
Home Office pathologist Nat Cary, who testified in 2016 at the Helen Bailey murder trial, said there was a possibility that Diane’s breathing had been interfered with by the use of some type of drug.
At the time of Diane’s death, Stewart called the emergency number.
“ My wife had a seizure. She is in the garden”, he told the operator. When asked if the woman was breathing, he replied, “No, I don’t think so, no.”
His neighbor Victor Nickson helped guide air ambulance paramedics to the Stewarts’ home .
The Stewarts lived on a farm in England. “I saw them lower their thumbs and shake their heads in response to paramedics’ questions. CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) stopped,” he said.
“One put his arms around Stewart, who was showing signs of stress and concern”.
At that time, another neighbor, Vanessa, a nurse, returned home and saw Diane’s body: “I remember thinking: ‘Thank God there is no blood’”, she says.
She also points out that Diane’s death was “totally unexpected” and that although she suffered from epilepsy “she was well controlled”.
No real motive for Diane’s murder has yet become apparent.
Vanessa can’t find the answers.
Vanessa Easton recalled that there was no blood near Diane’s body when he saw her dead in the garden of his house. (Photo: KATE BRADBROOK/BBC)
“Ian lo he had everything: a loving family, a wonderful life. His wife was a loving woman and a lovely person. Why did he throw it all away? Why did you do that? It’s something that doesn’t fit and that I can’t understand”, he says about Diane’s murder.
Vanessa’s husband Paul said of Stewart that he found it “quite difficult” to relate to him. “He would get very close when he spoke, invading your personal space,” he added, although “I would never have imagined that he would be capable of killing someone.”
Six years later, Stewart would end the life of his new partner.
Helen’s Murder
After Diane’s death, Stewart moved on with his life. He bought a sports car before starting a relationship with Helen Bailey.
April 2016, Stewart reported her missing.
Three months later, the body of Helen was found in a “smelly” cesspool next to the body of her dachshund, Boris.
Helen had written more than 18 books, including the popular series Electra Brown.
Her husband, John Sinfield, died in 2011 during a vacation in Barbados, drowned in the sea after being swept away by the current.
She and Stewart met at through a bereavement website, they bought a house together and planned to get married.
Margaret Holson, who had approached Helen in the months before her murder, he says that what angers him the most “is the thought that if more had been done to find out what happened to Diane, my friend Helen would still be here.”
“We did not have that information or evidence at the time,” Superintendent Kent replies.
“At the time of Diane’s death there was nothing to suspect that Ian Stewart had been responsible or that she had died at his hands”, she adds.
“She would have had gotten away with the murder of Diane Stewart had it not been for the Helen Bailey investigation.
“I hope there are not many more unidentified murders… but it is, of course, a possibility.”
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