The bones of Debbie Griggs, who was killed by her husband more than 20 years ago when she was pregnant, have been found in a backyard.
When Debbie Griggs, 34, unexpectedly vanished from her Deal, Kent, home in the middle of the night on May 5, 1999, she was four months pregnant.
On October 19, 2019, her husband Andrew was sentenced to prison for her killing.
Mrs. Griggs’ bones have now been discovered in the grounds of a home in St Leonards, Dorset, almost three years to the day after the murderous fisherman was put behind bars, according to Kent Police.
The find was discovered after police conducted an excavation in the backyard of the house Griggs had moved into in July 2001, after the conclusion of the mother-to-first be’s whereabouts inquiry.
After receiving a tip that Mrs. Griggs’ bones could be buried there two weeks ago, the decision to dig up the garden in St. Leonards was made.
The Kent Police said that during the search, human remains, including tooth pieces, had been discovered. A post-mortem test on October 14 verified that the bones belonged to Ms. Griggs.
More than 20 years have passed since Debbie Griggs’ husband killed her, but Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate stated, “We have never given up hope of one day discovering her remains and providing her loved ones some peace.”
‘Andrew Griggs denied being accountable for his wife’s disappearance, but this finding is further evidence that he was lying the whole time, inflicting even more suffering on everyone who knew and loved Debbie,’ said the author.
I hope they may find some solace in the fact that she can finally be placed to rest, even if they still grieve her awful death today.
The mother-of-cause three’s of death will be determined by tests, and police will look into how she ended up being buried there.
After a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in October 2019, Griggs, a 59-year-old sailor, was found guilty of killing his wife and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.
Due to rumors that he was having an affair with a 15-year-old girl and for professional reasons, prosecutors said he had “the greatest cause” to want Mrs. Griggs gone.
When the original inquiry into his wife’s whereabouts was over in July 2001, the murdering father had relocated to the property.
He denied having anything to do with her disappearance, but following a review by cold case investigators from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in October 2019.
Even though Mrs. Griggs was not experiencing post-natal depression at the time of her murder, the killer’s husband attempted to blame the auxiliary nurse’s abandonment of him and their children during his court appearance.
In actuality, the domineering 57-year-old businessman had a relationship with a 15-year-old girl and had expressed his desire for his wife’s demise to acquaintances.
Nobody knew where Mrs. Grigg’s remains were at the time. Police never discovered any forensic evidence to show that Griggs murdered her or that she was dead, and he has never revealed the whereabouts of the corpse.
However, a judge said during Griggs’ murder trial that he believed Griggs, a fisherman, had discarded her corpse in the English Channel.
Griggs was sentenced by Mr. Justice Robin Spencer, who stated: “Only you know how you murdered her and where you disposed of her corpse. Her body has never been discovered.”
You repeatedly lied on the witness stand, just like you did at the time Debbie vanished.
“By killing your wife, you also ended the life of the unborn child. I have a strong hunch you dumped her corpse at sea.
You were as familiar with that section of coastline as your own hand. Her body could have easily been weighed down until it sank.
The judge cited as aggravating factors in sentencing the 20-year concealment of Mrs. Grigg’s body and the fact that Griggs has still not disclosed its location.
“You stole the mother’s children and her family of the very thing you have enjoyed over those 20 years,” she said.
Griggs received a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.
In his court case, the jury learned that Mrs. Griggs’ car, which was discovered abandoned a mile from her home with the carpet and boot lining conspicuously missing, contained only a smear of blood.
A short time after she vanished, Griggs took his three sons to Dorset where he started a new life, marrying for a second time and starting a model ship business.
In an extraordinary case, a diary Mrs Griggs kept before her disappearance turned out to be the key piece of evidence against him.
His wife wrote: ‘During the course of our marriage my spouse was bombastic and aggressive.
‘He has threatened to get me sorted. I took that to mean he will do me harm or will arrange for someone else to do me harm.’
She related a story about how her husband had kneed her in the stomach when she was carrying their child.
She said: ‘Everything we have together is in reality his, and I am only entitled to enjoy anything that is a joint marriage asset by reason of being with him.
‘He does not allow me go out by myself. His needs come first. He tells me I am sick and mad in the head.’
Mrs Griggs’s journal highlighted her anxiety about how he was spending more time with the girl, who she confronted only days before she went, accusing her of sleeping with her husband.
But when Griggs took the evidence, he claimed his wife had been struggling from post-natal depression and was beset by ‘dark moods’ which left her suicidal.
He said that Mrs. Griggs often used the phrase “I could as well kill myself.”
She battled depression after her first two pregnancies, but by the time of her fourth pregnancy, she had overcome it, and according to friends, she was happy and well at the time of her disappearance.
Griggs sought legal counsel on his wife’s potential claim to half of their company in the event of a divorce.
Then, three days before to her disappearance, he opened a new account in his single name for their company.
When Griggs was found guilty on Monday, he remained emotionless.
He was urged last week to divulge the location of where he had concealed her corpse by Detective Chief Inspector Kaye Braybrook of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate: Debbie Griggs was a devoted mother to three small kids and was expecting a fourth child.
“The jury heard testimony from a number of witnesses who all agreed that she would never have left them and was not the aggressive, unhappy person Andrew Griggs has gone to great pains to depict.
Although Debbie’s corpse has never been discovered, we are positive that her husband killed her.
He has shown himself to be a heartless and cunning person who has gone to tremendous efforts to ruin the reputation of his wife.
He has heartlessly lived his life for the last 20 years while Debbie’s family and friends have battled to accept their loss and have never had the opportunity to properly say farewell and bury her remains.
Tragically, Debbie’s mother passed away without ever learning what had become of her daughter, only a few weeks before Andrew was accused of killing her.
Only Andrew is aware of Debbie’s death and what happened to her corpse. I want him to speak out so that those who are still grieving her death might find some kind of closure. He still has time to make the proper decision.
After the ‘kind and compassionate’ mother was slain and sentenced to prison in 2019, Mrs. Griggs’ brother, Derek Cameron, made a statement on behalf of the family outside of court.
He criticized Griggs’ “manipulative web of deception and falsehoods,” saying: “Twenty years. This is the length of time it has taken for justice to be served. Twenty years of suffering, agony, and pain. Twenty years of suffering, misery, anguish, and mental anguish.
There had been 20 years without a daughter, sister, grandkids, or nephews. Twenty years of lost connection and the motherless mother of three young sons.
“Now that 20 years have passed, we can finally put this to rest. Debbie was an extraordinary daughter, sister, and human being who was compassionate and dedicated to everyone, not just her friends. We will never forget Debbie.
She was a very devoted mother who had an unwavering love for her kids, who meant the world to her. We sincerely apologize to Debbie for the delay, and if your mother is listening, we did in fact catch him.
“We would ask the defendant if he can see within his wisdom to consider informing us where Debbie’s corpse is so we can finally put a stop to this,” they said.