Fresh hope for family of murdered mum after killer ‘told cellmate location of her body during game of Scrabble’
THE family of a woman murdered by her husband have been given hope her body can be found after he revealed its location during a Scrabble game.
Russell Causley was convicted in 1985 of the murder of his wife Veronica Packman, more than a decade after she disappeared but he has refused to reveal where her body is hidden.
Causley, who is now 76, killed the then 40-year-old Veronica, who was also known as Carole, and then moved his lover into the family home in Bournemouth.
His former cellmate has now revealed how the killer used to mention Romney Marsh, an area of coastal wetland in Kent, as they played Scrabble, the Daily Mail reports.
Causley is due before the parole board in a bid to secure his release from prison.
But his daughter Sam Gillingham wants him to remain behind bars until he reveals what he did to her mother.
Along with grandson, Neil Gillingham, she has made repeated pleas for him to make a full confession.
Carole Packman disappeared from her home in Bournemouth, Dorset, shortly after visiting a solicitor supposedly seeking advice about a divorce.
Causley, a former electronics engineer, had moved his mistress, Patricia Causley, into their family home before Mrs Packman disappeared apparently leaving a note saying she was going for good.
He then changed his surname to the same as his lover by deed poll.
Causley got away with the murder until after he attempted to fake his own death in 1993 as part of a million pound insurance scam, for which he was given a two-year prison sentence.
The investigation Mrs Packman’s disappearance was reopened by police following a jail cell confession where Causley allegedly told of the “perfect’” murder of his ‘bitch wife’.
He was subsequently charged with murder and his landmark trial in 1996 saw him become one of the first people in the UK ever to be convicted of murder without a body being found.
The verdict was, however, quashed in 2003 but at a retrial a year later Causley was found guilty after his sister said she had heard him admit the killing.
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In 2016 Causley confessed to the murder and suggested he set fire to her body then said he buried her.
But he then retracted his confession altogether and said he was innocent
The Queen’s Speech contained a bill to keep killers in jail until they reveal where their victims’ bodies are buried – known as Helen’s Law after murdered insurance clerk Helen McCourt.
Samantha Gillingham and her son Neil have m