Ann Widdecombe stopped responding to messages moments before she was due to appear on air for an interview on Wednesday — the day before she was found dead at her Dartmoor home with a serious head injury.
The 78-year-old former Tory minister was set to be a guest on Channel 5's 5 Daytime in the afternoon, but did not reply to the broadcaster and failed to turn up for her slot, according to presenter Dan Walker. "The team contacted her agent to ask them to check in on her. This information has been passed to police as it's part of the investigation," he said in a social media post.
“Ann Widdecombe stopped replying to messages before a TV slot; found dead with head injury; suspect arrested then released.”
ITV News reports that Widdecombe had been in contact with a Channel 5 researcher earlier on Wednesday afternoon to set up an interview for the Matt Allwright show at 1pm. After a phone call, the pair exchanged messages, with Widdecombe sending her last message at 12:19pm. But when the researcher asked her to join a Zoom link at 12:48pm, she did not reply. Follow-up messages asking if she was okay also went unanswered.
The team contacted Widdecombe’s agent, reportedly finding it unusual that she — a regular on the show — would suddenly go quiet. A source told The Sun: "They tried multiple times on the phone and on text, but she wasn’t reading messages or responding."
Her last public appearance had been earlier that day, speaking to Mark Dolan live on TalkTV at 8am. Dolan told The Sun the interview was "like every other": "She had her usual energy, passion and good humour."
Police were called by the ambulance service at around 11:40am on Thursday and found Widdecombe dead inside her home with serious injuries. One neighbour said she believed Widdecombe’s gardener, who arrived every Thursday morning, may have found her. Others suggested her friend and carer, who lived nearby, found her.
Her death was announced by her representative early on Friday morning. By the afternoon, Devon and Cornwall Police had arrested a 26-year-old white British man on suspicion of murder at an address in Newton Abbot, a short drive from Widdecombe’s home, known as Widdecombe’s Rest.
But in an update on Saturday morning, police said the suspect had been released and was no longer part of the investigation. Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said at an evening press conference that while the force had "consulted counter-terrorism policing", the death was not being treated as terror-related. Asked whether political motivations were possible, he said: "At this time, I have got no information to believe that that is a politically motivated crime." On whether the suspect was known to the victim, Longman said investigators remained "open-minded" but it was "too early to comment further".
Neighbours expressed shock. Susan Coyish told The Sun that Widdecombe had withdrawn from the community but was still "approachable"; she had last seen her at a petrol station 10 days ago. Immediate next-door neighbour Peter Cornthwaite recalled how Widdecombe did not have security or a secure garden, and claimed to have seen a white man wearing hiking gear arriving in a van at her home in the early hours of Friday.
A cordon remained at the scene with a large police presence into Saturday. The unanswered questions — what happened in the hours after Widdecombe last messaged, and why — remain at the centre of the murder investigation.
