Victim foretold her death

Linda Razzell told friends that she was afraid her abusive husband would kill her if he ever caught up with her.

Mrs Razzell, whose estranged husband Glyn was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, lived in fear of him, according to her neighbours.

The Highworth mother-of-four had already taken Mr Razzell to court twice for assault, once for allegedly smashing her head repeatedly against a plate glass window, but both times he was found not guilty.

He was forbidden by the court to approach her and police told neighbours to call them if his car was ever seen anywhere near her house in Pentylands Close.

Neighbour Joan Cragie said: "We are very pleased at the verdict, and we are pleased that justice has been done this time, because Linda was let down by the courts before."

Since Mrs Razzell disappeared on March 19, 2002, her four children, who range in age from seven to 14, have been looked after by her cousin Julie Westmore.

Ms Westmore said: "A previous jury gave Glyn Razzell the benefit of the doubt and so fuelled him to believe that he could get away with murder.

"We have discovered to our cost that the present justice system is not one that anybody should feel proud of.

"It has taken 18 months for this case to come to court, Glyn Razzell was allowed bail and while he lived in freedom four children lived in fear.

"The youngest was unable to sleep at night, wishing he were dead so he could escape the memories."

Neighbour Christine Palmer added: "I was very fond of Linda, and I knew her as a loving mother who was very involved in the life of her children.

"I believe that he has done what she always said he would do if he caught up with her, but at least he will be punished for it."

Mrs Razzell, who worked part-time as a learning support assistant at Swindon College, has not been seen or heard of since she disappeared.

She had not taken any clothes or money away from home, and her passport and driving licence were left behind. Since she disappeared her bank account has not been touched, and she has not turned up in any employment, benefits, police or health service files.

Most importantly, she left behind the four children she was devoted to.

Mrs Palmer said: "She was a loving mother who was very involved in the life of her children.

"She would often chat to me about how they were doing and was always bursting with pride at the things they achieved."

Because of these factors, police quickly began to treat her disappearance as suspicious, and on March 27 Razzell was arrested for the first time, following inconsistencies in the statements he made to police.

The couple had been married more than 15 years, after meeting on a train when Mrs Razzell was returning from her native Wales to Reading University, where she studied French.

Their relationship blossomed and they married and had four children, moving to Highworth after Razzell got a job as a financial services advisor with Zurich.

However after a while the relationship began to fall apart, and Mrs Razzell told friends and neighbours that he was abusing her.

At the time of Mrs Razzell's disappearance their divorce was about to be finalised and Razzell's bank account had been frozen after he failed to declare his redundancy pay-out from Zurich, but used the money to take his girlfriend on a round-the-world cruise.

The police investigation and eventual conviction of Glyn Razzell has taken 18 months and cost almost £500,000, with a core team of 60 officers working around the clock.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Granger, who lead the investigation, said: "It has been a very tough time for the whole team, and we have all been working very hard.

"It has been a huge case, with 2,000 people interviewed, 1,500 statements taken and 1,900 exhibits seized.

"It has also been emotionally harrowing, especially for the family liaison officers, to have seen the Razzell family, especially Linda's children, going through this truly horrible time.

"They have suffered a lot but what has always struck me is the immense dignity they have conducted themselves with throughout the whole ordeal of the investigation and then the trial."

This case is the first time that the Wiltshire Constabulary have got a murder conviction without having a body.

DCI Granger said: "It did obviously make things more difficult, not having a body, because we had to first prove that Linda Razzell was dead, and then that Glyn Razzell killed her, which fortunately our evidence was able to convince the jury of.

"Linda Razzell was an extremely devoted mother who everyone who knew her said would never leave her children.

"This fact, together with the fact that there was no evidence of preparation for a flight, and the fact that it is almost impossible to vanish in modern society, tells me that she is dead.

"Glyn Razzell was first interviewed because of his connection with her, but a week after she vanished, we realised that statements he had given to the police had significant discrepancies.

"When officers arrived at his house to question him, they discovered a noose set up in his attic, and for those reasons he was taken in to custody."

Razzell was released without charge, and later gave interviews to the media protesting his innocence, and made a public appeal for Linda to get in touch before her son's birthday.

On May 16 he was re-arrested and charged with murder the next day.

In spite of a huge police search, Mrs Razzell's body has not been found.

DCI Granger said: "Mr Razzell protested his innocence throughout, and so we had no hard evidence on where the body was.

"We received no intelligence, so we searched a two mile radius from where Linda was last seen, as well as places that we knew Glyn Razzell went to and knew, such as Lawns, but we had no luck.

"He had a six hour time frame in which he could have disposed of her body, and the problem is that these days you can travel a fair distance in six hours, so there is a literally vast area where she could be.

"There have also been suggestions that he put the body in quicksand, which is virtually impossible to search. We searched as hard as we could, but obviously we didn't search in the right places.

"We will not stop looking for her body, because it is important for the family to give them a sense of closure, so if we get any further intelligence, or if Glyn Razzell chooses to tell us where it is, we will search again.

"He has obviously hidden the body well, and this was a very cool, calculated crime which he had planned meticulously for, as he planned for everything in his life."