The Full Stop That Trapped a Killer ; When a Jealous Husband Strangled His Wife, He Thought Typing a Fake Suicide Note Would Conceal His Tracks. But He Was Snared by One Tiny Grammatical Error - and a Very Unusual Breed of Detective [Eire Region]

Summary

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WHEN police inspector Garry Weddell learned that his wife, Sandra, was having an affair, his revenge took the form of what he hoped would be the perfect crime. Strangling the 44-year-old nurse at their home in January 2007, he put a cable tie around her neck and hung her body in their garage to make it look as if she had killed herself. Next to it he placed a single sheet of A4 paper on which he had typed her 'suicide note' - wearing rubber gloves to ensure he left no evidence.

Weddell's ingenuity drew on everything he had learned during 25 years in the force, but it did not help him evade capture, and some remarkable detective work led to his arrest. Just months later, while free on bail, he travelled to the home of his mother-in-law, Traute Maxfield and shot her dead before turning the gun on himself.

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The Full Stop That Trapped a Killer ; When a Jealous Husband Strangled His Wife, He Thought Typing a Fake Suicide Note Would Conceal His Tracks. But He Was Snared by One Tiny Grammatical Error - and a Very Unusual Breed of Detective [Eire Region]

In the ensuing controversy about how he had been freed to kill again, little attention was paid to the story of how his crime was uncovered.

But now a new book reveals how just one misjudged full stop on the forged suicide note contributed to his downfall.

To the book's author, John Olsson, a dubious full stop can be as revelatory a clue as a blood-stained footprint or discarded weapon would be to a conventional sleuth.

A veteran of more than 300 investigations into crimes ranging from extortion to murder, Olsson is one of ...

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