Widow murdered at river cottage: Police fear grandmother who lived alone was stabbed to death in botched burglary

By ANDY DOLAN

Betty Yates was found dead at her home in the picturesque town of Bewdley, in Worcestershire, which sits on the River Severn

The widow of a former company director has been found stabbed to death at her riverside cottage.
The discovery of the body of Betty Yates came after a worried friend called police.
Detectives are investigating the possibility the 77-year-old grandmother died tackling a burglar at her home in a beauty spot popular with walkers and anglers.
She died in the living area of the cottage, which lies at the end of a mile-long track between woodland and the Severn near Bewdley in Worcestershire. Officers recovered a knife.

Picturesque: Police have launched a murder inquiry after the body of Betty Yates was found in her riverside cottage in Bewdley, Worcestershire

Friends had urged the retired teacher to leave the isolated £300,000 property following the death seven years ago at 71 of her husband, Raymond, a consultant engineer.
They described her as independent and feisty and liable to ‘put up a good fight’.
West Mercia Police said Mrs Yates had been subjected to a violent attack at some point between Monday and Wednesday, when her body was found.
A spokesman said officers were keeping an open mind but a botched theft was one of the major lines of investigation.
A local man told yesterday how he had overheard one policeman close to the scene say ‘it appeared as if it was a burglary gone wrong’.
He added: ‘It looks like the woman fought the burglar but was killed as a result. It’s tragic but sadly a sign of the times.’

Remote spot: Friends had urged the widow to move out of her isolated home (circled) after her husband died seven years ago

Mrs Yates was a member of the Wyre Forest branch of the University of the Third Age, an educational group for retired people, and ran the group’s book club.
Jeanne Round, a fellow member, said: ‘She was a lovely lady. She used to get books out of the library for us and we would all go round to her house by the river to discuss them.’
Another neighbour, Lynne Marshall, said: ‘I know that friends had tried to urge her to move closer into the community because she was so isolated where she lives but she always refused.

Search: Police teams were scouring a lengthy track on the western bank of the Severn near Bewdley yesterday

Isolated: Police in Dowles Road, Bewdley, near the cottage where Mrs Yates's body was found

Mrs Yates’s elder sister, Joan Church, 79, described her as a ‘wonderful, wonderful sister’.
Mrs Church, who lives near Ludlow in Shropshire, added: ‘I’m so proud to have known Betty.
There’s nothing more I can say, except I am absolutely devastated.’
Hazel Costello, a 53-year-old solicitor who is one of Mrs Yates’s two children, was too upset to comment on the tragedy yesterday at her country home outside Stafford.
Mrs Yates taught for many years at St John Church of England Middle School in Blakebrook, Kidderminster.

Three police vehicles could be seen near the cottage and six more were parked beside the Severn in the track off Dowles Road, near the remains of a disused railway bridge

Horror: Police at the scene in Bewdley, Worcestershire, on Wednesday night shortly after the body was discovered

Former pupil Verity Worthington said teaching was her passion: ‘She had a way with children – she didn’t just teach us, she loved every single one of us, as we did her.
‘She encouraged us to read, to knit, and to think outside the box. Betty had a great sense of humour – she was gentle and loving, yet witty and funny.
‘She loved where she lived, in a cottage on the outskirts of Bewdley, where she had the memories of her husband, Ray. She missed him tremendously, yet doted on her two granddaughters and always talked of them with pride.’

source: dailymail