my partner has been missing since monday and not contacted anyone said she was going away hasn't gone anywhere she said she was going so i we just decided we should report it she left a note she said she said in the notes something like i need space and time alone i'm going to broadstairs please don't contact me in any way but bring broadstairs she's got we've got a cottage down there but we people have been down there with neighbours and she hasn't she's not there what's your partner's name helen bailey and what's up first oh
cronkite god she please find me there 22nd well just let me double check one second oh god i just need to go to her physical appearance now that's all right what's a height initially well i'm going to guess here she has told me but she's probably 5 10 just plumbing up and her eye color i like it oh my god how do you forget these things i don't know at the moment sorry it's just gone out my head but how can i not remember her eye color that's terrible and can i just take down her
contact number if that's okay of course it is i'm gonna have to look it up because i have something i can never remember it's just in my phone would you mind as well if i just take the whole address of the cottage that's all right the whole address of the cottage wow yeah you've got it right i'm not sure if i can give you that i just go there uh i'm gonna have to look that up i really don't know i just go there oh no i don't know i don't know helen elizabeth bailey was
born on the 22nd of august 1964 in northumberland england she was a popular children's author and is probably most remembered for her series the crazy world of elektra brown she had originally intended to become a forensic scientist but quickly fell in love with media and worked on marketing and licensing campaigns for characters in the rugrats and garfield when helen was 23 she met the man who would later become her husband in 1996 she married john simfield the head of a licensing rights company and she soon started writing more throwing herself into her children and teenage
stories this creative outlet quickly turned into a flourishing career and her books were incredibly popular and well loved but in february 2011 tragedy struck she and her husband john were holidaying in barbados when he went for a morning swim in the sea but before long helen heard john cry out from the water he had become caught in a riptide and tragically he drowned they had been together for 22 years by way of helping the grieving process helen threw herself into her writing she started a blog called planet grief it was a way of processing her
own emotions and it allowed for others affected by grief and loss to reach out and share their stories too very much a community-based blog where anyone was welcome helen would post suggested readings and websites that might help other people through the various stages of grief her openness and honesty made her easy to connect with and through her blog and her memoir she helped many other people going through the same things the book is based on my blog planet grief which i started after my husband drowned whilst we were on holiday in barbados in february 2011.
and if you think it's going to be just another misery memoir a miserable misery memoir well some of it is miserable but some of it is actually very funny even though i didn't realize it would be at the time so although i do cry when i date the wheelie bins out or become hysterical buying a single scotch egg i also tell you about bereavement therapists who were crazier than i was going to parties on my own and during christmas and eventually dating to grieve is to mourn the loss of someone or something that we cared
deeply about whether that's because of death divorce or some other traumatic life event if you're in that space right now i really hope that the book brings you some comfort but whatever your circumstances i hope that you just have a very enjoyable read it was through planet grief that in october 2011 helen met ian stewart ian's wife diane had died very suddenly in 2010. their relationship began just as supportive friends but they soon became a lot closer and helen would describe their union as two grieving families coming together the pair began dating and eventually became
engaged they moved into a beautiful gated home together in the picturesque town of royston and hertfordshire they lived with ian's two sons and helen's beloved dog boris who had come from helen's marriage to john it seemed that after so much tragedy in both of their lives they had eventually found happiness again however on the 15th of april just before 4 pm 999 received a phone call hello there my partner has been missing since monday and not contacted anyone said she was going away hasn't gone anywhere she said she was going so i we just decided
we should report it what's your partner's name helen bailey i want to take him first oh cranky thank god you find me there 22nd well just let me double check one second don't cause him 22nd of august 1964. she's gone away was that for work business sorry no no she's she's self-employed so she works from home so she no she left a note she said she said in the know something like i need space and time alone i'm going to broad stairs please don't contact me in any way but when brought to there she's got
we've got a cottage down there but we people have been down there with neighbors and she hasn't she's not there and her phone is just dead it's not well so dead it just it just doesn't ring just go straight to answer the machine did helen go in the vehicle no she didn't she left her car here she did take a dog with her she's got a little accent when was the last time you saw her monday afternoon before about about quarters quarters of three twenty two three what the [ __ ] did you realize that
no has been left oh i don't well yes it was a shock she has talked about it but i was still shocked yeah he has to talk about his face because things just haven't been going well for recently okay so she mentioned wanting space but she's never actually acted on it she's not left she's never done any eyes before this may sound silly but she's definitely not at home no no father last night i don't literally checked everywhere we have got quite a large house but i've literally checked everywhere and uh is she ever likely
to be a victim of any sort of abuse that you know of no i know she's a very strong person it's very hard to abuse helen and can i just take down her contact number if that's okay of course it is i'm gonna have to look it up because i have something i can never remember it's just in my phone if you know what i mean so i just it's just a question of waiting there's nothing nothing else you do at this stage i can say we're just through our initial inquiries and yeah it's just
a case of waiting unfortunately as well as her home in royston she had another property in kent by the seaside somewhere she would often go to wright and take some time for herself but it was clear that neither she nor anyone else had been there in quite some time by all accounts it appeared that helen had left a few days prior with her dog boris to get some space and clear her head but nobody had heard from her since and this was extremely out of character for helen her neighbors and close friends wondered if her
stressful work schedule had caused her to drop off the grid for a while days turned into weeks and with no trace of helen turning up anywhere six weeks after helen disappeared the police started to expand their search from what i understand from what we've what we've discussed and what i've been told by the investigation is that helen um was last seen on monday the 11th of april is that correct yeah okay i want would like you to take you through what happened that day this is where i can't remember very well i'll tell you what
i can remember but what someone i can't remember is maybe what i've said since when i've looked at my diary things like that okay one of our solicitors he went through the paperwork i've taken and i realized i'd only taken very old paperwork i've left half of here so i dashed back my dashboard i drove back i'm sure what happened saw the other paperwork on the side shouted for her and helen wasn't there so i thought she would i thought at that stage she was just walking the doorway with his neighbors i went back to
solicitors there's only in town just dropped the paper didn't stay dropped off the camera and still wasn't here and then then so i started to think well she has gone she has gone to boards they also took another look at her seaside cottage in broadstairs kent and examined her wi-fi router her phone had been going to voicemail since she had last been seen on monday the 11th of april but it seemed that on the 16th of april there was a glimmer of hope that she had in fact been there helen bailey's mobile phone had briefly
connected to the wi-fi in her cottage police wondered if helen had in fact been in broadstairs the whole time following this a closer look at her bank transactions gave them more hope that helen was still out there as there had been activity on her account a new appeal was made and police now wondered if helen was using another name to avoid being detected further analysis of the accounts showed that a standing order from helen's personal account to her joint account had been increased it had gone from 600 pounds a month to 4 000 pounds a
month her bank card had also been used to renew an arsenal season ticket costing 3 000 pounds it soon became clear that it wasn't helen moving this money around at all it was her partner ian stewart police went back to the house that ian shared with helen they knew they urgently needed to speak to him but ian wasn't there he had left to go on a two-week spanish holiday that both he and helen were meant to go on together neighbours were baffled that ian had left the country with everything going on at the time [Music]
but detectives sat tight and waited for him to return on july 11 three months after helen bailey had last been seen officers arrived at the home she shared with ian and just after seven am ian was arrested good morning how are you i'm secretive sergeant dave sharp the major crime team again while i wanted to search and the theft of money propellant okay so you do not have to say anything but it may help you defense if you're mentioning the question from where you later on in court anything you do say may be given evidence
do you understand that oh yes sir okay all right okay we're gonna speak to the police station all right so what needs what needs to happen you need to probably get some clothes on okay then you need to go to the police station and these officers will transport you to the police station and then you'll have a chance to be interviewed at the police station okay police carried out a more extensive search of the couple's property and on july 15th they finally found helen bailey her body was discovered in the house's cesspit beneath the garage
alongside her body was her beloved dog boris it was determined that she had been suffocated but it was inconclusive as to whether or not she was suffocated and definitely dead before she was put in there or whether she suffocated to death while inside the cesspit it was a truly harrowing and terrifying question dci kent said of ian he knows every time he uses the facilities in the house that's where it's going that's an incredibly cruel and cynical way to dispose of someone you claim to love and was set to marry ian had purposely parked the
jeep over the top of the cesspit during the police's initial searches to prevent it from being detected ian stewart was subsequently charged with the murder of helen bailey you're the last person to see her alive you wait four days to report him missing you're vague about your movements on the 11th at best vague you take a duvet to the tip on the 11th you don't report to missing for four days following day you go to broadstairs i don't know why why did you go there did you see helen on the 16th because according to the
technical information we've got her phone is in broad stairs and you're on broad stairs was helen there she wasn't was she or was she you tell me did you kill helen bailey did you intend to kill her or was this an accident what happened did you just lose control lose just lose it some big argument and you killed her and you've been covering up ever since because if that's what's happened you need to tell us now because this could be your last opportunity to speak to police about this you are here on suspicion of murder
you need to tell us what happened there is transactions where it clearly shows from what i've seen that you have taken money or someone has taken money which i believe to be you from her account into your joint account which you have obviously access to therefore you've now got access to an extra 12 000 pounds you would have been benefited from her death is that correct you why'd you say that financially you would have benefited from her death would you not say it seemed that ian had been plotting for quite some time helen bailey had
written up her will in 2012 in which she had left her fortune to her brother john stepson daniel and friend jenny but in 2014 she changed it so that ian would inherit the majority of her assets and he wouldn't be left financially vulnerable helen also took out a life insurance policy to cover a potential 1.2 million pound inheritance tax bill in case she died before they got married several months before helen was killed in february of 2016 ian began giving her the sleeping aid zopa clone which had been prescribed to him for sleeping problems he
often crushed it up and put it in her breakfast in the morning over the next few months helen became concerned about her energy levels and sleeping she made several internet searches that included why do i keep falling asleep and falling asleep in the afternoon on monday april 11 2016 helen spent the morning looking at wedding venues and sending emails sometime between 10 51 am and 2 30 pm ian drugged helen into a stupefied state but the timing of her death is still inconclusive he disposed of her body in the cesspit beneath the garage of the
house and shortly after he threw in her dog boris as well it was a truly callous and cold-hearted crime after this ian increased the standing order to transfer money from helen's bank account to their joint santander account ian was supposed to visit the doctor's surgery just before 3pm but he phoned the gp and said he was having car trouble and asked to rearrange his appointment for later on after he visited the gp he was caught on camera making a trip to the refuse center to dispose of a duvet following this he met with helen's solicitor
and tried to hastily push through the sale of one of helen's houses helen solicitor described him as quite aggressive he refused to discuss the matter any further on the basis that helen wasn't present that evening ian went to watch his son play bowls before buying a chinese takeaway for them both he sent a text message to her phone with just two kisses in the message a few days passed and helen's family and friends were becoming concerned that they hadn't heard from her they contacted ian which prompted him to phone the police and report her as
missing no one saw the notes that hannah allegedly left on the side and police believed it was all part of a web of lies that ian was spinning on april 16 2016 ian drove to helen's cottage in kent with her mobile phone when he got there helen's phone briefly connected to the wi-fi he then continued to live his life as if nothing had happened dci jerome kent who led the investigation said ian stewart was the most bizarre manipulative greedy and self-centered man he had ever met the murder appeared to be based on nothing more than
pure greed in january of 2017 the trial of ian stewart began in his own defense ian stewart claimed that helen and her dog boris had been kidnapped on april 11 2016 by two men called nick and joe he said he hadn't told the police about this to keep helen safe but the elusive nick and joe demanded 000 pounds in ransom money ian said he spoke to helen for the last time on a phone belonging to one of the men on april 15th following this claim ian was presented with two men in court the prosecution believed
that they had found the men that ian had based the descriptions of the kidnappers on nick cook was stewart's next door neighbor and joe capullo who he had known for several years prior in his old home he had admitted to knowing both the men but said they didn't match the description of the kidnappers several of helen's neighbors gave evidence that they had seen helen walking boris on the day she disappeared another witness claimed that he saw helen in broadstairs near her cottage this was after april 11th but under cross-examination this witness admitted that the sighting
could have been back in march before she was considered missing and that he hadn't thought about this sighting until a journalist had interviewed him after a seven-week trial and just six hours of deliberation on the 22nd of february 2017 the jury found ian stewart guilty of the murder of helen bailly at saint albans crown court the next day judge andrew bright sentenced him ian stewart refused to appear via a video link to hear his sentencing judge breit said it was difficult to imagine a more heinous crime ian stuart was sentenced to life in prison with
a minimum term of 34 years he will be 90 years old before he becomes eligible for parole dci jerome ken said that although it was the correct and right verdict there were no winners in this case as a result of this case detectives began re-examining the death of ian stewart's previous wife diane who had died after an epileptic seizure at the couple's home in 2010 in august 2018 ian stewart was arrested on suspicion of diane's murder if all goes to plan the trial is set for 2022 [Music] helen bailey helped and inspired so many people
with her compassion openness and honesty she met a tragic end at the hands of someone she believed had bought her the happiness she had been missing the work on her blog planet grief and her book when bad things happen in good bikinis gave many people suffering from loss and grief support help and ultimately hope for the future you
