Policing searching for the wife of a 75-year-old man stabbed to death at his home in Suffolk last week have conceded that she is likely to have been murdered by her husband’s killer.
Sylvia Stuart, 69, remains missing after her husband Peter’s body was found in woodland close to their home in Weybread on Friday.
DCS Simon Parkes, the lead investigator in the case, said he feared Sylvia may also be dead. He said Suffolk police were seeking a European arrest warrant for the chief suspect, Ali Qazimaj, a 42-year-old ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, who was last seen boarding a ferry to France on Saturday.
Asked whether it was likely to be a double murder case, Parkes said: “That’s something which I think there is every possibility of, yes. We haven’t found Sylvia, we are still looking for her. But we are now some 10 days on since she was last seen. So we think the chances of her being alive are now remote.”
Parkes said he had never before dealt with a case like this. “There are a number of peculiarities and unique factors to this case,” he said.
The couple were last seen in Pulham Market, Norfolk, on Sunday 29 May when CCTV footage shows them entering a farm shop.
Parkes said Qazimaj had used the alias Marco Costa after being granted asylum in the UK. “We believe he is from Kosovo, that he sought asylum following the conflict and was granted this and given a British passport,” he said. “We believe he has previously used the name of Marco Costa. We are providing that information because he may be travelling under that name.
“We are looking for any further information about Ali Qazimaj which hopefully will may give us an indication as to where he may have gone or what he may have done with Sylvia.”
Asked whether Suffolk police were seeking a European arrest warrant for Qazimaj, Parkes said: “There is a whole legal sequence that we are working through.”
He confirmed that Qazimaj had links to the family, but would not go into details. He said there was no evidence to support reports that Qazimaj had a relationship with the mother of the Stuarts’ son-in-law. “That is bizarre. We have got nothing at all which corroborates that in any way,” he said.
Members of the public have been warned not to approach Qazimaj but to call 999 immediately if he is seen. “He is a suspect in the death of Peter who died as the result of multiple stab injuries. So clearly that’s where the danger lies,” Parkes said.
He said police were investigating the places where Qazimaj worked for clues as to Sylvia Stuart’s whereabouts. “He was forklift truck driver in the Purfleet area. We are trying to get as much information as we can do about places he may have worked from past employees etc to try and understand potentially where Sylvia may be.”
Parkes said investigators were exploring possible motives for the killing. “For Suffolk this is an extremely large investigation. For us we are committing significant resources to it. There are a number of peculiarities and unique factors to this case. We have one person who has been killed, one person that we have yet to locate, and clearly we didn’t find her in the area where we found Peter, and the fact we have a man who has now gone abroad who we are seeking in connection with it.”
On Monday, police released on bail a 61-year-old from Leicester, believed to be the Stuarts’ son-in-law, Steve Paxman.
