Helen Bailey was the victim of cynically-executed murder

On Friday 15 April last year, Ian Stewart calmly dialled 101 to report his fiancé missing.

She was the successful author Helen Bailey, 51 and from Ponteland in Northumberland - and she became the subject of a nationwide search lasting three months.

The truth was that Stewart knew exactly where she was, and she had never left home. He and drugged and then suffocated her, four days earlier, in a plot to take her money.

He treated Helen's body with disdain, dumping it alongside her beloved dog Boris in a cesspit at the house they shared in Royston, Hertfordshire.

On 15 July 2016, police made the grim discovery.

Stewart had by then already been arrested on suspicion of Helen Bailey's murder, as the case against him grew.

After a trial lasting six weeks, 56-year-old Ian Stewart has now been found guilty by a jury at St Albans Crown Court.

STEWART'S PLOT

The prosecution described Stewart as carrying out “a long-planned and cynically-executed murder that had money as its driving motive.”

They said that he “preyed” on Helen Bailey after her husband’s death in 2011. His wife had died in 2010, and they met on a social media group for widows and widowers. They were in a relationship for four years, and were planning a wedding.

The court heard that Helen had assets of more than £3million from her work as a children's author. She had changed her will in July 2014, to make sure Stewart was financially secure, even if she died before they married.

He was due to inherit their house in Hertfordshire, worth £1.5m, and “substantial financial advantage.”

In January 2016, Stewart was prescribed sleeping tablets, called Zopiclone, for insomnia.

The post-mortem examination on Helen’s body showed traces of the drug had been in her system for several months.

In the weeks before her death, she had told family about concerns she was feeling unnaturally sleepy.

Stewart had been secretly giving her the sleeping pills, gradually increasing the dose, before suffocating his partner in a “stupefied” state inside their home on Monday 11 April 2016.

An email sent to a friend just before 11am that morning represents the last known time Helen was alive. Her online and phone activity then suddenly stopped.

It was during the following hours that the prosecution say Stewart carried out murder, before disposing of Helen's body in the cesspit under the garage, alongside her miniature dachsund.

Just before 2.30pm, Stewart logged on to his fiancé's bank account and increased a monthly payment to his own account from £600 to £4,000.

He then went out to an appointment at the doctors, then to a local household waste centre, where he got rid of some cardboard boxes, and a duvet that he had used to dispose of her body.

Later the same day, Stewart went to watch his son play bowls, and then had a Chinese takeaway at home, seemingly carrying on as normal.

A MISSING WOMAN

Stewart waited four days, and then phoned to report Helen missing. On 15 April, he told Hertfordshire Police: “my partner has been missing since Monday and has not contacted anyone."

He added: “she left a note. She said something like: 'I need space and time alone, I'm going to Broadstairs, please don't contact me in any way.'”

They had a holiday home in Broadstairs, Kent - while Stewart later admitted he had made the note up.

Asked by the call handler if she definitely was not at home, he replied: "we have got quite a large house and I’ve literally checked everywhere."In the following days, he continued to send text messages to Helen’s phone, professing his love, despite being in possession of it himself. Stewart visited Broadstairs himself, and her phone connected to the Wi-Fi there. He later disposed of it.

He also contacted their solicitor to ask if the sale of her flat in Gateshead, for £185,000, could still go through while she was missing.

The police launched a high-profile search, which included a public appeal made by her brother.

Stewart had deceived Helen’s family into believing she may still be alive.

He paid for leaflets to be printed as part of efforts to find his partner, and attended a dog walk aimed at jogging any witnesses' memories of Helen and Boris.

Officers say that Stewart was very interested in police searches of their home, but then “blase” when interviewed.

When they said they needed to search for electronic devices, he responded: “you won’t find anything in the garage - if anything, devices will be in the house."

The police investigation gradually began to establish that Helen had not left their home at all on 11 April, and Stewart was arrested on 11 July. When told that he was being held on suspicion of Helen’s murder, he responded: “you’re joking.”

During interviews in custody, he then repeatedly refused to answer officers’ questions.

A GRIM DISCOVERY

On 15 July 2016, police discovered Helen’s body after opening the hatch to a well in the garage, to reveal the cesspit.

Her miniature dachsund Boris was also found, as well as a pillowcase containing a dog’s toy and two black bin bags.

A post-mortem examination was unable to establish the cause of the dog’s death.

Helen’s body was identified using dental records.

STEWART'S DEFENCE

Ian Stewart maintained throughout his trial that he did not kill his fiancé.

He said he had no wish to harm Helen, was already financially comfortable, and would not have been able to dispose of her body, having had a stomach operation several weeks earlier.

He claimed that Helen must have been taking the sleeping pills herself, and he was not the one who amended the bank transfer on 11 April.

He told the court that when he went to the doctors and the household waste centre in the afternoon, she had waved him off. He said that was the last time he ever saw his partner, and when he came home later, she was gone.

Most significantly, Stewart said he knew what had happened to Helen: she had been taken by two kidnappers named Nick and Joe, who had presented themselves at the house in the weeks before, claiming to be old business associates of her deceased husband.

He said they assaulted and blackmailed him, and he did not inform authorities because he feared for Helen’s and his sons’ safety.

He told the court he believed they had disposed of Helen’s body in the cesspit.

The prosecution brought into court men two named Nick and Joe who Stewart knew, as a neighbour and former bowls colleague - pointing out that they strongly resembled the descriptions he had given to the police of the supposed kidnappers.

Stewart insisted: “they don’t compare at all.”

The prosecution said Stewart’s story was a “complicated charade” - and the jury agreed that it was a work of fiction, and convicted him of murdering his fiancé.

The Crown Prosecution Service described Stewart as a “very sinister individual”, who had deceived Helen Bailey completely. She was murdered by the man she loved.