Police investigating two double slayings that have shocked a quiet rural area of northern England say they want to question a man about all four deaths.
Twin sisters Claire and Diane Sanderson, 27, were found dead on Sunday in an apartment in the Yorkshire village of Camblesforth, 282km north of London. The bodies of James Britton, 80, and his wife Joan, 82, were found by neighbors the same day, 40km away in the village of Strensall.
Police said on Tuesday that they were seeking Claire Sanderson's boyfriend Mark Hobson, 34, in connection with the sisters' deaths, and said a man fitting his description was also seen near where the Brittons died.
PHOTO: AFP
"We want to speak to him about four murders," said Deputy Chief Constable Roger Baker of North Yorkshire police.
Police said Diane Sanderson had been strangled and that James Britton died of stab wounds. Autopsies had yet to establish how the other two victims died, although both had been violently assaulted.
Camblesforth residents reported hearing screams during the night from the apartment where Claire Sanderson lived with Hobson, a former garbageman with a conviction for unlawfully wounding a man in 2002.
Detective Superintendent Javad Ali said that although police had not established any connections between the sisters and the frail, housebound Brittons, the reported sightings and "other evidence recovered from both scenes" suggested the killings could be linked.
North Yorkshire is a large, predominantly rural county, home to rugged coastline and moorland and the gentle valleys of the Yorkshire Dales.
Baker said more than 100 staff from the force were working on the case.
"Murders are very rare in North Yorkshire, so to have two double murders is unheard of," he said. "I want to reassure the public we're doing everything possible to bring this person or these persons responsible for these murders to justice as quickly and as safely as possible."
Police said Hobson was considered dangerous and should not be approached.
He was described as 175cm tall, of slim build, with a shaven head and a 5cm scar above his left eye.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home