Who is Ian Stewart, why did he murder Helen Bailey and what happened to his first wife?
DEVIOUS Ian Stewart thought he had executed the perfect murder after drugging and suffocating his partner, the successful children's author Helen Bailey.
He dumped her body in the cesspit of their £1.5m home and tried to convince everyone she was missing – but the cold and calculating killer was eventually jailed for life for her murder.
Who is Ian Stewart?
Dad-of-two Ian Stewart is a 57-year-old Cambridge educated software engineer who thought he was clever enough to outwit justice.
After his wife died suddenly he quickly moved on, preying on Helen Bailey, who was also a widow, after they met online.
Stewart wooed the grieving and lonely children’s author and quickly moved into her £1.5million home.
He was the primary heir of Ms Bailey’s £3million fortune.
When she died he was in line to gain two homes, enough cash to ensure a “very comfortable” lifestyle, and pension and life insurance payments from his fiancee, jurors were told.
He brought his sons Jamie, 24, and Oliver, 21, to live with them - but they were not home on the day she vanished so were duped by their father like everyone else.
Video of the moment he was arrested in his dressing gown shows the stunned killer telling cops "You're joking. I don't understand".
Why did he murder Helen Bailey?
Stewart was found guilty of killing Ms Bailey and her pet dog in a bid to get his hands on her £3.3million fortune.
The pair had met on a Facebook group for the bereaved, starting a relationship within a year of Ms Bailey's first husband drowning while on holiday.
But as the relationship progressed, Stewart's plan unfolded as he slowly drugged the children's author over several months before suffocating her and throwing her body, and that of her beloved pet dog Boris, into a cesspit full of human excrement.
Stewart, who had been named as a potential beneficiary to Ms Bailey's will 21 months before her death, had stood to gain £1.8m from her investment portfolio, plus her properties in Royston, Hamps, and Kent.
As part of his cunning plan, he pretended that Ms Bailey had wanted time alone in Broadstairs but was in the meantime wiring money to his own account - a move which later led cops to identify him as the prime suspect.
He was questioned a number of times, giving officers confused answers and claiming he could not remember much about the day she went missing.
Cops eventually obtained a warrant to search their Royston home - with it later revealed that Stewart had tried to throw them off the scent by parking his car over the entrance to the cesspit.
But when they eventually discovered the septic tank, they spotted an arm protruding from the raw sewage and later recovered Ms Bailey's body and that of her dog.
What happened to Stewart's first wife?
Stewart’s first wife, Diane, was found dead on the back patio of the couple’s home with her “sudden, unexpected” death ruled as being caused by her epilepsy.
But the circumstances of her demise is being re-examined after Stewart was found guilty of killing Helen Bailey.
Diane died on June 25, 2010, in the garden of the home she shared with Stewart and their two sons in Bassingbourn, Cambs.
Her family revealed they harboured concerns about Diane’s death despite her death certificate stating the school secretary suffered a “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy” after an inquest.
In 2013, her sister Wendy Bellamy-Lee even flagged concerns that the family had, writing on social media: “We we’re (sic) and still are numb and completely shocked today as to why it happened with so many unanswered questions!”
Ian had met his first wife at Salford University in 1985, with Stewart telling the court: “We met in the canteen and I stole a chip off her plate. That’s how we met.”
The pair then bought a house together, going on to have two children.
But Stewart said that his first wife had been plagued by epilepsy from a young age, with her pregnancies troubled by fits.
Stewart received a number of lump payments after his wife's death, including a £33,000 life insurance policy.
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DCI Jerome Kent of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, confirmed investigators would re-examine the case.
In August 2018 police arrested and questioned Stewart over his first wife's death.
He was quizzed on suspicion of her murder and released under investigation.
The arrest came almost a year after Stewart was sentenced to at least 34 years behind bars for the murder of Ms Bailey.
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