Police investigating the disappearance of the children’s author Helen Bailey have found what is believed to be a body within the grounds of her home in Royston, Hertfordshire.
A 55-year-old man from Royston who was arrested on Monday has been re-arrested on suspicion of murder and is being questioned at Stevenage police station.
“Helen’s family have been updated of this significant development and are continuing to receive support from specialist family liaison officers,” said Det Ch Supt Paul Fullwood, the head of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit. “As you can fully appreciate, this will be an extremely difficult time for them and they have requested their privacy be respected at this time.”
Bailey, 51, who wrote the Electra Brown and Daisy Davenport series, was reported missing by her partner, Ian Stewart, 55, on 15 April, four days after he said he had last seen her at home.
A man was arrested by Hertfordshire police on Monday on suspicion of murder, disposing of a body in a manner likely to obstruct the coroner, and theft of money belonging to Bailey. He was released on bail on Tuesday as police officers continued to search the home Bailey shared with Stewart and his two sons, as well as their holiday home in Broadstairs, Kent. Friends initially said they believed the author may have gone there for “some time to herself”.
The couple’s large detached house with outdoor swimming pool has been cordoned off with a high metal fence. Forensic officers in white suits have been seen inside and a tarpaulin tent has been set up at the front of the house.
As well as writing children’s fiction, Bailey set up a blog, Planet Grief, where she described her struggle to cope with the sudden death of her husband, John Sinfield, who drowned during a holiday in Barbados in 2011. Her memoir of her grief, When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis, was published last year, and recounts how she met Stewart, whose wife died in 2011, through a bereavement group.
Stewart told police officers that Bailey had left a note saying she needed some time to herself and was going to Broadstairs. After a few days, Stewart said he visited the Broadstairs property and discovered she was not there.
Bailey was seen walking her dachshund Boris in Royston on the afternoon she vanished, and there was a possible sighting of the next day, 10 miles away, walking along a road in a “bedraggled” state. She has not contacted friends or family, used her mobile phone or withdrawn cash.
In May, one month after she was last seen walking her dog, which is also missing, Stewart issued a written appeal. “You bring so much to so many people in ways you don’t even realise,” he said. “You not only mended my heart five years ago, but made it bigger, stronger and kinder. Together we learned to live with our grief and move forward with our lives, but never forgetting. Now it feels like my heart doesn’t even exist.”
Shelley Whitehead, Bailey’s bereavement counsellor, said she was “absolutely gutted” when she learned an arrest had been made. “My overwhelming feeling is I feel sick to my stomach,” she said.
“She was a brilliant writer, she was accomplished in everything she did. She cooked magnificently, she baked magnificently. She wrote wonderfully. She would have you laughing and crying in the turn of a sentence. As her coach I got to really understand and love this woman, who was resourceful and loved to make a difference. She would speak to anybody, she was very approachable.”
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