Police link murders of retired teacher and Reverend

The murder of a retired teacher stabbed to death at her home and that of a clergyman killed at his vicarage have been “formally linked”, police said last night.

West Mercia Police officers investigating the murder of Betty Yates, 77, at her home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, on 2 January say they are working with officers investigating the stabbing of the Reverend John Suddards, 59, in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, last Tuesday.

Mrs Yates was found dead at the bottom of stairs at her home on the banks of the River Severn on 4 January, having been killed two days earlier. Mr Suddards’s body was discovered on 14 February by workmen who arrived to carry out work at the vicarage.

A West Mercia Police spokesman said: “Detectives have formally linked the murder of Mrs Yates to the murder of the Reverend John Suddards in South Gloucestershire.”

Stephen Farrow, 47, was arrested in Folkestone, Kent, in the early hours of yesterday morning in connection with Mr Suddards’s death after an appeal by Avon and Somerset Police.