Just minutes before she was attacked and killed, Ann Widdecombe sent a final WhatsApp message to a TV producer: 'Received! Panic over!!' It was 12.19pm on Wednesday – the moment the 78-year-old former Tory prisons minister believed she had solved a technical glitch. She had no idea she would be dead by 12.30pm.
Earlier that morning, Widdecombe had appeared on TalkTV from her bookshelf-lined bungalow in Haytor, Dartmoor, discussing Nigel Farage's decision to resign as an MP. She was due to appear on Channel 5's Matt Allwright show at 1pm via video call. At 12.14pm, a producer sent her a Zoom link, but she had trouble receiving it. 'Sorry for the confusion,' she wrote at 12.15pm. 'I can see now that what I refused today was extra time!! Old age is a terrible thing.' She gave him an alternative email address, and after he resent the link, she typed her final words: 'Received! Panic over!!'
“Ann Widdecombe sent 'Panic over!!' at 12.19pm, minutes before police believe she was killed at 12.30pm.”
The producer replied: 'Amazing! Let me know if there’s any issues.' That message was read – it had two blue ticks, according to ITV News images. But when he messaged again at 12.48pm asking her to join the call, the text was not opened. At 12.53pm, he called; no answer. At 12.55pm, he sent: 'Hi Ann is everything okay?' Two more calls, at 1.05pm and 1.14pm, went unanswered. As the programme aired, Allwright told viewers at 1.27pm that Widdecombe had failed to show.
Concern grew. 'It was very strange that Ann wasn’t on,' a source told The Sun. 'Nobody could understand it. She was usually very keen to be on, and she is popular with viewers. The producers couldn’t get a hold of her.' They contacted her agent on Wednesday evening and again on Thursday morning. 'There was some fear that she’d had a medical incident, or maybe needed someone to check on her, but nobody thought she might be dead,' the source added.
Widdecombe's body was found by a carer in her kitchen at around 11.40am on Thursday. She had sustained 'serious injuries'. Police believe she was attacked at about 12.30pm on Wednesday – minutes after her final text – and that she may have disturbed an intruder. Terrorism has been ruled out, and there is no suggestion the killing was politically motivated.
A 26-year-old man arrested on Friday is no longer part of the 'fast-moving' investigation, Devon & Cornwall Police said. The manhunt for her killer continues.
Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker wrote on social media: 'Really sad news about Ann Widdecombe. Horrible to think about what she went through.' The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, called her a 'distinguished politician' whose death was a 'huge, huge loss'. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described her as a 'very fun and feisty woman'.