A deranged husband copped to killing his wife by their son’s gravesite 20 years to the day that the once happy couple had buried him, reports said.
Martin Suter, 68, murdered his wife Ann Blackwood, 71, on July 24, 2023, at the Crofton Cemetery in Stubbington, England, where their son had been interred two decades earlier.
He pleaded guilty to the heinous crime 10 months later, according to the Portsmouth News, which broke the news this week after a judge lifted a reporting ban.
Back on that fateful July day, police arrived at the scene and tried to treat Blackwood, but it was too late.
Paramedics pronounced her dead at the graveyard, according to reports. Police did not disclose how Suter, a yachting enthusiast, allegedly killed his wife.
Witnesses saw the paramedics desperately trying to help Blackwood, according to local reports, but to no avail.
Blackwood’s family said that they were shocked and horrified by the heartless killing.
“Her daughter, brothers, their families and all her friends are absolutely devastated by the loss of Ann Blackwood,” the family said in a statement obtained by the Portsmouth News through the Hampshire Police Department.
“A loving, caring, kind-hearted mother and friend who was very popular in her local community, she was enjoying her retirement with an active lifestyle which included tennis, sailing, cycling and music,” the family added.
Suter is a Green Party member and council election candidate, who formerly ran for office several times, but never won, according to the Portsmouth News. He finished fourth with 331 votes in a local race in 2022.
He was also an active member of St Faith’s Church in Lee-on-the-Solent, according to the Portsmouth News.
The couple lived in a quaint seaside resort town named Lee-on-the-Solent in England that sees an influx of tourists during the summer months.
“We were called to Lychgate Green at 3.47 p.m. after the woman, who we can now name as Ann Blackwood from Lee-On-The-Solent, had been assaulted in the cemetery,” police told Metro UK. “She was treated initially by police officers and our colleagues from South Central Ambulance Service, but was pronounced dead a short time later.”
“You never expect something so horrific to happen so close to home, especially in such a friendly community,” a female resident in her 60s told Metro UK.
Suter had faced six additional charges in a separate case of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14. He pleaded guilty to one offense and was found not guilty of the others following a trial, the Portsmouth News said.
