Why Did Stephen Searle Murder His Wife?

Just five days after Christmas in 2017, at 10:19pm, Suffolk police received what they later described as one of the most bizarre 999 calls they had ever received.

Stephen Searle calmly explained to police that he had killed his wife in their suburban house in the sleepy Suffolk town of Stowmarket.

When paramedics arrived, 62 year old Anne Searle was found unresponsive and despite their best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anne had been strangled by her husband of 45 years, before suffering from a fatal cardiac arrest.

When police arrived, he joked that he had ‘been a very naughty boy’, and ‘sometimes you’ve just had enough’.  Stephen claimed it to be self-defence, and that Anne had come at him with a steak knife.

But how could someone who had accidentally killed their wife of 45 years, and the mother of their children, joke so casually after her traffic death?