RedHanded - Episode 154 - Helen Bailey: Close to Home

Episode Date: July 2, 2020

In April 2016 millionaire author, Helen Bailey vanished. After months of searching, she was found much closer to home than anyone could have imagined... VOTE: https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote Ian Stewart full 999 call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsS8X4Zspr4&t=510s Ian Stewart arrest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQnHMHXjx00 https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/shows/what-the-killer-did-next/articles/the-strange-tragedy-of-helen-bailey  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/22/killer-childrens-author-helen-bailey-quizzed-police-death-first/  https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/helen-bailey-murder-how-killer-13873266 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36814157 https://closeronline.co.uk/real-life/news/janet-street-porter-dead-killed-children-author-helen-bailey-dumb-loose-women-ia/     See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. So, get this. The Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader, asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here. She even increased taxes carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah, check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here.

She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah, higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals. They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. Guys, you already know what I'm going to say. You already know what's going to come out of my mouth. You already know and you don't know, now you know. Get to know if you don't know. But basically, the voting for the Listener's Choice for the British Podcast Awards is open until the 6th of July.

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to jinx it but it's important it is and if the link you can't see it's not working whatever reason it is britishpodcastawards.com vote please go do that and with that let's get on with today's show i reckon because it's really hot in this box today. Yeah, it is. I'm literally sitting on a damp towel because it is so hot. It's like Blue, I just left him with a damp towel over him. Yeah, I am Blue right now. But he's scared of the fan, so he won't come near it.

And I'm like, Blue, how can you be this stupid? I'm trying to help you. Anyway, it's tough. It's a scorcher. Do you follow Bertie the Pom on Instagram? I don't think I do, but I think you've sent me pictures of him. Yeah, yeah. I sent him the picture of him dressed as Paddington Bert. So he lives in New York and he has a little paddling pool outside his building and he

sits in it all day. That's adorable. It's amazing. Go and follow Bertie the Pom. Actually, this weekend I am going to go buy a paddling pool because I think he would appreciate that. We got an eight-foot paddling pool at my house. Absolutely the best lockdown purchase we have made. That is genius.

The best lockdown purchase I've made so far is a £15 barbecue. And I've had three barbecues already. And I bought it last weekend. Oh, good for you. I'm having a great time. I think the neighbours are pissed, but we're going to continue. I did think during a time when there is like a, you know, a respiratory disease pandemic, should I be barbecuing on the regular?

Maybe. Yeah. Well, they reckon it's vascular now anyway. I did. I did see that, which might explain why it's like affecting BAME people more, et cetera, et cetera. And that's like why people are like,

you know, throwing clots and having a stroke after they've had it, they reckon. Yeah. I saw the article this morning that says they found links to like brain issues after people have had COVID. Right. Let's, let's stop talking about COVID.

We'll save it. We'll save it for under duvet. We'll save it for somewhere else. But I hope that you have voted and I hope that you are all well and happy and that you don't have coronavirus. For a really lovely visual for you all, I have just tucked the damp towel up under my dressing gown so it is on my back where I got sunburned. And that is my life now. Nearly 30, guys. And that's just who we are. Really pushing pushing on that's just who we are I am 30 and I still haven't bought a stool for this recording booth so I'm standing and I'm just so sweaty I don't understand why my bottom half is so sweaty because it's not even in the box but anyway But anyway, shall we? Shall we crack on? Let's. Yes, please let's.

So I would say that it's a phrase that's often thrown around, especially because I did see this thread that somebody started in the Red Handed Facebook group about like, what are your favourite slash most hated true crime cliches? And people were like, oh, you know, she lit up a room when she walked into it. She had a smile that just made everyone love her. And I kind of feel like the next sentence that's going to come out of my mouth is one of those. But 51-year-old Helen Bailey truly did have it all. She was a celebrated children's author. One of the biggest hits that she wrote being the very popular series of teenage novels

called The Crazy World of Electra Brown. It's kind of one of those typical kind of teenage novels, teenage series of novels about like adolescent angst, specifically teenage girl, adolescent angst. And we've definitely been there, done that. But I think that this book came out when we were like 18, 19, so like a bit after our time, when we were probably suffering from very different teenage angst. But when I was the age at which this book series was aimed at,

I think I was reading like Jacqueline Wilson. She was my banger. Big time. Yeah. Devoured them. Did you know that my sister is on the cover of a Jacqueline Wilson book? Your sister, Isabelle, is on the cover of a Jacqueline Wilson book. Which one and what, why?

It's called Love Lessons and they did like a new edition for a Valentine's Day release and she's on the cover. Because she used to be a model, briefly. Like a photo of her. Yeah, a photograph of her. Yeah, I'll find it. That's so funny. Oh my God.

I would like die a fangirling. All I ever read was Jacqueline Wilson when I was like 14 probably. God, The Suitcase Kid. That one cut, that one hurt. That one cut me deep. I had to stop reading. What's the one about the twins that are called Ruby and Garnet? Double Act.

I had to stop reading that because it made me too upset. It was so sad. It was so sad. And what was the one about the girl with eating disorder? I can't remember. Someone is yelling at me. Someone will tweet at me immediately after this goes out. So Helen is kind of nailing this world. She was also happily married to businessman John Sinfield. The two had met in their 30s while working together, got married and started a life.

And I think, you know, when we say that she truly did have it all, she did because I feel like to have nailed love and success and be a millionaire author, well, it's not really a bad lot in life, is it? And Helen and her husband, John, they lived together in London. Like we said, they met in their 30s, so they'd been together for 22 years and married for 15. But then in February 2011, the unthinkable happened. The couple had taken a trip to Barbados and tragically, in a freak accident, John drowned on their perfect beach holiday. I don't think I can even imagine that. Just sort of getting back on the plane and there being an empty seat next to you. And the sudden and heart-crushing loss of John threw Helen into a very understandable tailspin. To cope with her immense pain, Helen started a blog called

Planet Grief, where she detailed her personal journey in coming to terms with what had happened. And as a writer, I feel like she felt compelled to put her thoughts to paper or a computer. But importantly for Helen, she also wanted to help others cope with loss and grief. That is what Helen specialised in after all. Her Electra Brown books resonated with teenage girls because she could empathise with their pain and struggles. So now Helen made it her mission to heal herself by helping to heal others. And to do this, on top of the blog Planet Grief, she also wrote a book about the tragedy of John's death called When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis. And I know that this is like a memoir of grief, but I just think that's such, that's an amazing amazing as someone who appreciates well-titled things

that is a fantastic title I think it's amazing on Helen I often think about how many books get written just because someone came up with a really good title oh I convinced myself that I was going to write a book called now Lorraine has gone where because I used to work at Soho Theatre Bar and my manager Seb we were talking about um misheard lyrics and lyrics that you've misunderstood and he said I always thought instead of now I see clearly now Lorraine has gone I thought it was I can see clearly now Lorraine has gone and I jokingly was like oh is that why you're gay Seb because you grew up thinking when women go away everything's fine and he was like no no but I do specifically remember learning about sex like learning about sex at school and then I sat down on a step outside and I was like no I don't like the sound of that I'll just

do it when she's asleep that's amazing and he's had like this incredible life like hung out with boy George in the squat in Hackney so basically I want to do a biography of Seb and call it Now Lorraine Has Gone do it I support that if you need some time off to go and do that I agree with that I accept I mean it's an idea I came up with at 20 and have done nothing about for nine years maybe 2020 is your year Hannah who knows who knows 2020 is no one's year we know that I don't know I'm trying to think of like something I can come out of 2020 with to feel like I didn't waste my year so I was talking to my friend about it yesterday and we both made an agreement of one thing we were both going to come out of 2020 with.

And we have to send each other pictures of us with that thing on December the 31st. And basically she has said that she wants to come out of 2020 with abs. And she's like, I'm very, very far away from that mission. I would like to come out of 2020 with a mustard throw that I am still knitting. Ah, that's a good one. And potentially maybe a flat if the property market will allow me to do such a thing. So I said, if I fail to send you a picture of myself in my new flat holding a mustard throw,

I'm just going to have my various oddly knitted squares and a picture of me in a cardboard box on which I've drawn a house. And I assume she's just going to make up, paint on some abs to her stomach and that's the picture I'll receive. So everybody set yourself a goal. Send us your pictures of the thing you want to achieve on December 31st. I think we should make this a spooky bitch thing. Oh, that's a good idea.

And let's see what we achieve let's have a think we'll come back to it next week but I'm into it and Helen's book when bad things happen in good bikinis it's a raw and heartbreaking story of her quiet grief in dealing with her husband's passing and like any book like that of course it's gonna be painful but there was a line in it that really struck me. Quote, standing in the supermarket in front of the microwave meals for one, wanting to scream and cry. And I just think it's such a perfect encapsulation of like everyday grief for the loss of a life partner. Like in one moment, you've gone from maybe exciting

meal planning to buying meals for one and oh it just broke my heart. And so like this with her blog and with her book and the other things that she was doing Helen went on with her life and in the five years after John's death Helen had put her pain to good use. The books and blogs into which she poured her heart out helped her pull through. And her talents as a writer no doubt also helped many others going through similar circumstances. Slowly, Helen, with all her writing and her outreach, and with the help of her little dachshund, Boris, moved from deepest, darkest pain to some form of normal. Can we just talk about Boris a second?

He's a miniature dachshund. He features quite heavily in the rest of this episode, so that's why we're talking about him. He's fucking adorable. He is adorable. I just love it when pets have human names. I was in Clissold Park the other day and there was this massive like Dulux dog and his owner was wearing overalls and I was like you have planned that and then she was like calling him over she was like Brian Brian come here and I was like yes

Brian the paint dog that's amazing that's adorable I love it oh I've already just like once a week I just go on Battersea Dogs Home and just look at the dogs they have available oh god tell me about it bad habit I made a massive mistake of signing up to the make you mailing list and they email me every time there's a new dog I'm not ready for that

but you know what happened my dad took Blue for a walk this morning and he got bitten by a dog Blue did or your dad did? my dad did oh my god I know I came downstairs and he was like I've been bitten by a

dog and like we sort of washed it out with stuff and like cleaned it up and then just put a bandage over it but we know where that woman lives and everything if anything happens but I think I think it'll be okay it seems like if the dog's been fully vaccinated that only infection is a risk I'm hoping but Jesus Christ what what kind of dog was it? It's just a little one, like a little yappy one. Oh, okay, so it's not like a massive hound. No, no, no. It's usually the little ones, though, isn't it?

Oh, yeah. So Helen had also been using a bereavement site chat room to reach out to others, share her pain, and find people who would truly understand, I think, what was going on for her, because I think if you've gone through something like this, even if you have a sort of very close circle of friends and family, I feel like maybe it would be easier to talk to strangers about this because there's that anonymity to kind of buffer open discussion. And also like, I don't know about

you, but when something bad has happened to me and I constantly want to talk about it I do get to a point where I feel like am I burdening my friends and family because they're probably sick of this but with strangers going through the same thing you kind of feel like you can talk about it endlessly with them if you need to yeah I think I think they're like not wanting to like burden your friends with it as a factor but I've definitely had situations where like for example I mean it's it's a terrible comparison to make but like when you've just broken up with someone and someone who has been with their boyfriend since high school and has literally never been dumped is like oh it's okay though I understand I'm like no you don't you do not understand you could not possibly understand

definitely definitely and I think that's the space that Helen was in and in 2016 it was on this site that Helen met a man named Ian Stewart. Ian had also lost his partner, his wife Diane, and she died in 2010. Just like Helen's husband John, Diane had died suddenly, just collapsing one day at their family home. Ian and Helen bonded quickly online over this shared pain. Traumatic loss can be a huge catalyst in helping people feel connected to one another. People who have suffered trauma such as losing a partner partner especially in such unexpected ways like Ian and Helen had probably feel very differently from everyone else and I think it's not unusual that that kind of

thing can lead to a pretty intense connection forming quickly between two people. For Helen at least at first this relationship with Ian was strictly platonic. But Ian wanted more, and he started love-bombing Helen. And there's no other way to put it, really. He'd bombard her with affectionate messages, he'd turn up at her house with gifts and flowers and generally just not give her any space away from his attention. He knew Helen wasn't ready, or perhaps even interested. But Ian knew what he wanted, and he did all he could to hijack

and totally control the speed at which the relationship progressed. And there's something so kind of sinister about that whole vibe, isn't there? And I feel like even the term love-bombing, I feel like it's too nice a term or too nice a word for what that actually is, because, I don't know, have you ever sort of been through that?

Have you ever been love-bombed? Oh, yeah oh yeah yeah and it just makes you question your every move yeah especially I think it it it blinds you and that's the point isn't it it's blinding you to the situation and I think that like yeah as someone who's been single for a really long time whenever that happens it's quite difficult to like not see it for what it is. It's like, oh, but this one likes me and sure he's an alcoholic and I actually hate being around him, but maybe it will be fine. It's so true. And I too, as someone who's been single for a long time, when it comes into your life and somebody is doing something like that to you, it feels very, it can feel very seductive and it can feel very addictive. And it's exactly what you said. It feels very blinding

and you know I would pride myself on being an intelligent subjective person with good judgment but it really does disarm you which is obviously the tactic because it's very very manipulative but yeah and I think um obviously we could talk about it's very just I think it's so fascinating the whole psychology of this but there is a great video that I watched on YouTube by a channel called Pop Culture Detective. I'll link it below because I just think it's really good. I think people should check it out. And it's called Stalking for Love. And it's so interesting because what they do is they go into all these different movies, all these different TV shows, and basically pull out how all of these, how all of this media kind of compounds this message, especially to men, that if a woman continuously tells you no to a

relationship, she just doesn't know what she's talking about. And it's up to you, as the man, to kind of stalk her into being convinced that you're the right man for her the number of harrison ford films that this happens in it is shocking it's shocking yeah it's like that bit in hercules where meg's like oh you know men they think no means yes and get lost means take me i'm yours like that's a disney film it is oh my god fit my fucking meg. She was the one. Meg and Mulan, they're the only two I've got any time for. I know, same. And just like in the movies, Ian's campaign of love harassment worked. And Helen soon fell in love with him,

even fondly nicknaming him the GGHW, or Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower. But unbelievably, I thought this was quite interesting, the GGHW, or Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower. But unbelievably, I thought this was quite interesting, that this seemingly happy turning point for Helen, where, you know, she's met this new man, she's moving on with her life, it's been five years, she got quite a lot of backlash for this. Some of the online community that she'd created on Planet Grief now turned on her. They said that Helen had claimed that she'd never fall in love again after

John died how could she do this but like for god's sake I know on a grief support forum you my dad when I was died when I was quite young so I possibly have a little bit more experience in this space than other people but you know of course like people break up with boyfriends who are and husbands and stuff who are still very much alive and are like I will never love again most of the time they move on they don't get any shit for that why is it different there's no point in just like dressing yourself in black like Queen Victoria for the rest of your fucking life like you've got to live you've got to get on with it absolutely and that person who passed away not to get too like philosophical or spiritual everybody that person who passed away loved you they would want you to be happy and not spend the rest of your life in mourning for them like exactly it's just like

walking to the end of a fucking widow's walk every day and staring out at the ocean like that's that come on do a hindu fucking widow and throw yourself on his fucking funeral pyre. Like, shut the fuck up. Obviously, everyone listening is pretty much going to agree that this is absolute bullshit that she got this backlash. The only thing I would compare it to is like, I guess, when you have like creators like YouTubers or podcasters. This hasn't really happened to us yet, but it may do.

But when they sort of start off making one type of content and then they change or they evolve into a different type of content and then everyone's like oh my god you've completely changed you've sold out you're totally different now and now I hate you and it's like just let people live man yeah man or like when people are oh people who only like bands until they get popular like yeah get over it yeah yeah yeah I just I said I think can't remember we were interviewed on something recently and like I can't remember which one it was um but we're talking about just like the the business of creating content and I truly believe like there is an audience for everything successful people just do the greatest good for the greatest number that's all it is like like the you could do the

most niche fucking podcast about your goldfish's eye, and that someone out there would listen to it. But successful people are just appealing to the greatest number of people. And the way to do that is commercially, I'm afraid, like no one wants to be stuck making fucking house music in their garage forever. Definitely. And I just think like, you should do what makes you happy. And like I said, this hasn't happened to us. We haven't really had that. We haven't really had that kind of comments or those kind of backlash. But, you know, I'm just saying it's kind of comparative to that, that this community that Helen created, based on her grief, then turned on her when she dared to try and be happy with her own feelings of guilt anyway about moving forward with her life, so she certainly didn't need them questioning her too. So Helen left that world behind and focused instead on starting a new life with Ian. Ian didn't have very much money, but Helen, as we know, did.

She had more than enough to buy them a beautiful £1.5 million house in Royston in Hertfordshire, which is just up the road from you, isn't it? It is. This whole story is like very much in my neck of the woods. So Ian Stewart is from Letchworth. No. Yes, Ian Stewart is from Letchworth. And Letchworth, those of you who don't know him,

is my hometown. It's, yeah, it's pretty like... Never met a nice person from Letchworth, ever. And now we've got a Mer... Oh, whoops. Spoiler! But yeah, Ian Stewart is from Letchworth. They move into Royston together.

So Helen leaves London, she comes and moves into this big house in Royston. It's all very local. Like, I could walk to Royston in like half an hour. It's all super close. Because this case has been in our archives for a while. And whenever I drive up to your house, I always pass the sign for Royston and I always have like a moment for Helen.

Oh. So they buy this house and Ian wasted absolutely no time once this house had been bought. He proposed to Helen and she agreed. Helen was over the moon writing, quote, he was going to be my new happy ending. And I just don't think there's anything wrong with thinking that way because life throws a fucking bunch of shit at you

and you've just got to adapt or you won't survive. That's all she's doing. Definitely. I think it's so unfair to say anything negative about what she's trying to do. Definitely, definitely. And we'll go on to kind of discuss more backlash that Helen received, but it's all a complete bullshit. She's 51.

That's my mum's age. Like, she's got her whole life in front of her. Like, good for her. She's trying to start again. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she's got, you know, I'd argue pretty much a minimum 30 years-ish. Once this all kicked off, those who knew Helen started to get a bit worried about her health. She'd always been a super active woman, but suddenly she started to seem very disconnected.

She looked spaced out at times. She was doing strange things, like she left her dog Boris at the beach. When her mother questioned her on it, Helen said that she didn't know what was going on but she just felt tired all the time. She was forgetting things, losing time. This wasn't like Helen at all. She was famously sharp and she's only in her 50s. And in April 2016, as Helen's odd behaviour started to increase, Ian told her family that Helen had decided to take a little break and head to her holiday cottage in Kent. They thought it was weird that Helen hadn't told them herself, but they accepted it. Helen had this

little cottage in Broadstairs, which is like a beautiful place. I guess she used it as like a little writing nook or something. So like, it's not that weird that she's gone off there. And Ian just said that she needed a bit of time away. But after days of no news and absolutely no word from Helen, her family started to worry. So much so that her brother even went to Kent to check the cottage. Because he'd found it weird that Helen wouldn't reply to his messages. And he also found it incredibly weird that she hadn't taken her car with her.

So when Helen's brother got to Kent, to his surprise, he realised that Helen wasn't there. In fact, the cottage didn't look like anyone had stayed there in a very long time. It had now been four days since Helen had last been seen. Finally, Ian called 999,

and this is what he said. she reported. What's your partner's name? Helen Bailey. And what's her date of birth? Oh crikey, God, she swung me there. 20 seconds. Why, just let me double check, one second, oh God. Her eye colour? Oh my God, how do you forget these things? I don't know at the moment, sorry, it's just gone out of my head. Sorry, God, that's terrible. She left a note, she said, she said in the note something like, I need space and time alone. I'm going to Broadstairs. Please don't contact me in any way. And was that note a bit of a shock?

Were you expecting it at all? No, it wasn't. Well, yes, it was a shock. She has talked about it, but it was still a shock. Yeah. She has talked about wanting space because things just haven't been going well for her recently, or for us.

She's definitely not at home, no. No, by the last night, So as you can hear, Ian Stewart doesn't even know Helen's birthday or the colour of her eyes. He's meant to be in love with her and marrying her. He lives in this in love with her and marrying her he lives in this like massive house with her and he i just feel like that is like number one that's first date territory fucking that's hinge picture territory what color your eyes are and when your fucking birthday is like this is outrageous it's just so despicable he's so shit he can't even be bothered to like think about these basic things there must be photos of helen in the house just pick up a

photo frame and have a little look uh it's also very polite which is just gross and not the big politeness is gross but like it's over the it's over the top and also in this situation like nothing about it sounds urgent he's just like oh well well, you know, she's just not here. Yeah, this is the thing. And I feel like, you know, I think what makes me cringe about him being overly polite is that I'm generally a very polite person. But if I was like scared or panicked

and some person on the call, and I know that that 999 dispatcher is being very nice to him. But if someone was like, oh, okay, are you sure she's just not in the house I would be snapping at them because I would be like they're not here I need you to take what I'm saying seriously this person is missing and I would be like blunt with them because of the urgency not to be rude for the sake of it but he's so like no she's not here and I'm just like you wouldn't behave like that I just don't believe that you would and you know he doesn't know her her eye color or her birthday but he's quite happy to say weird stuff about the vitamins she takes and who's been told that she's missing and how he met her which just seems I think that's him scrambling

for information he does know because he can't answer the most basic fucking questions. Yeah, it's him just sort of trying to seem like he does actually know this person that he's reporting missing and claiming to be his fiancée. So, and then with the note stuff, like, he covers himself by saying, oh, she told me not to contact her in any way at all. Which, fine, but I am assuming that if her car is not in Kent, it is at your house.

So why is that not something that you would be worried about? No idea. And he goes on to say she's menopausal, she's anxious, she's worrying about things. Oh, and someone phones him when he's on the 999 call and he picks it up and he's like, can you hold on a sec, I've got a call. Everything is just very matter-of-fact. He never even says Helen's name. He just refers to her with pronouns, she and her,

which is, you know, him distancing himself from the whole situation. And if I was panicked and asked for those specific details, I would be annoyed. I would feel like they weren't taking me seriously definitely and the woman on the phone is like very as you can hear very upbeat and very like this but if I was in a state of panic I wouldn't be responding very well to that and her and he also goes into weird details where the you can hear the 999 person being like you know about her past asking about this and the one line that just made me feel really pissed off

is the one where he says, it would be very hard to abuse Helen. I fucking hate that. He's the worst. He's the worst. I feel like we're obviously giving it all away because if you've not realised yet... Ian Stewart is not as innocent as he is pretending very badly to be. But he carried on pretending and a missing persons investigation was launched,

and extensive searches of the local area where Helen had last been seen walking Boris were carried out. Hundreds of hours of CCTV footage were checked. It's like Helen had just vanished into thin air. And at first, the police said that there was nothing to indicate foul play. They took Ian Stewart at his word because he has this note that he can show them. It says that she's going to Kent.

She says that she needs some time to think. And she says, you know, don't contact me in any way. They kind of go with that. But then they do start to hold press appeals because they think maybe she's hurt herself or maybe she's had a breakdown somewhere or something like that. And I thought this next bit was quite interesting because they even asked Arsenal fans at a match, they did like a big announcement at a match for their help in finding Helen because Helen was a season ticket holder for the Emirates Stadium. So they were like,

I guess, just trying to use any and all avenues to try and get some publicity around her going missing. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators

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And of course, Helen was also a well-known author. So sightings flooded in. And the police followed up on each one of the leads. But they all just went nowhere. The appeals were mainly led by Helen's brother. But in a statement, Ian said, quote, I hope you hear this message and listen carefully. We miss you and Boris so much. We are shattered in so many ways. You not only mended my heart five years ago,

but made it bigger, stronger and kinder. Together we learnt to live with our grief and move forward with our lives, but never forgetting. Now it feels like my heart doesn't even exist. Our plans are nowhere near complete, and without you there is no point. Ian started telling everyone that things hadn't been going that well between him and Helen. They'd argued and perhaps Helen was worried about being abandoned again after the death of her first

husband. But her friends, family and even her counsellor came forward and said that they hadn't known any of this. They were adamant that something had to have happened to Helen. Two weeks after Helen's disappearance, the police started to agree and they began turning Ian from a witness to a suspect. As they had widened their search for Helen, and given that she didn't have her car, and she hadn't touched her bank account, and she hadn't been seen anywhere, the police were now sure that they were much more likely

to find Helen dead than alive. The home Helen and Ian shared was searched extensively and Ian Stewart was questioned. The police dug hard into what he'd been doing the day Helen disappeared but Ian just says that he can't remember much of that day at all. He offers up so much random information but in great detail. It's super vague and confused. in the interviews that you watch with him being interrogated by police he offers up so much random information in great detail but is then at the same time super vague and confused when it comes to anything relevant to do with

helen's disappearance and i'm not talking like generally i'm talking about specifically on the day she disappeared because he talks in great detail about going to the doctors because he wasn't feeling great about how he had gone to the solicitors and then how he'd gone to the dump and how he'd also gone to watch his son play bowls but it's so weird to watch because at the same time as he's talking about all of these other things he'd done that day, he's peppering it with random blackouts where he has no memory at all of where he was or what he was doing on the same exact day. At one point, he even asks the police if he's a suspect. There's also body cam footage from the house

when the police are searching it. And Ian's behaviour would have, I think, sent up red flags even to the most green officer. And we'll leave a link where you can watch sort of the most important parts of this body cam footage because it's really very, very interesting and very awkward to watch. He follows them around the house as they're searching it. He continuously inserts himself into the investigation. He asks all these questions.

It's really hard not to feel like he's trying to manipulate them and lead them. He also pretends to be so affable and concerned and cooperative. But soon he refused the police any more searches of his house. But then he did hand over Helen's laptop to them. Again, why would a writer of all professions go off on a break without their laptop? Rookie error from Ian there, I think. I know. I'm just like, if you're going to pretend like Helen went off, why would you not hide the shit that she would have most likely taken with her?

It doesn't make any sense. And also someone's laptop is like the window to the soul. 100%. So the police continued the hunt, and they soon discovered that Helen had made changes to her will and had also taken out a life insurance policy. And we have to remember Helen was incredibly wealthy and Ian on his own didn't have a pot to piss in. It also appeared that Helen had given Ian power of attorney over her will

and with that the police were satisfied that Ian had not just a motive, he had millions of them and they were all sitting in Helen's bank account. But they were going to have to wait to arrest him because Ian had gone off to Mallorca for two weeks, on a casual holiday that he and Helen had planned together, and of course that Helen had paid for. It's like when Tony Blair fucked off on holiday when he was, like, under war criminal investigations.

I just don't get it. I don't get it. It's the weirdest thing. What are you thinking? Think about the long game. Tony Blair, Andy and Stuart. Tony Blair's fucking fine. He'd be definitely a war criminal,

but he's got all of those after dinner speaking gigs. You are right. He's what? He was fucking UN peace envoy to the Middle East. I mean, yep. There you go. That the middle east i mean yep there you go that's like ian watkins here you go you're gonna be king of the babysitters fucking out like you get to run every sports day you're gonna be ceo of nspcc shut the fuck up what is happening but mate like tony blair pre like iraq war and then halfway through and then post, he

looks like he was just like attacked by the devil. He really does. He looks haggard. I'm like, that's what evil does to you. And those are my favorite. Like, obviously you guys saw like on Twitter, we were talking about it and maybe in Under the Duvet, we probably talked about it, that Katie Hopkins was once and for all kicked off Twitter. So that's a big hooray.

If you don't know who Katie Hopkins is, just Google it very quickly, have a look and then never look again. No, I don't. I'm happy for you that you don't know who she is. Stay in blissful ignorance. Yeah, I'm also happy for you but I my favorite tweets that were sort of put out there were the pictures of people who were like a few years older than Katie Hopkins or just like a couple of years younger and they'd be like Sophia Varaga is like two years older than Katie Hopkins remember kids racism makes you age my favorite one was when she posted a picture of herself with a target on her head um that she'd like photoshopped in and it was like oh what it

feels like to be a conservative woman and someone had tweeted her being like well yeah because you put it there yourself because it's not a real target and you put it there yourself it's so funny i actually tweeted a picture of that and it's our most liked tweet ever i think we're like a thousand likes on that so i was very very happy i think it might have been ron perlman i don't know who's the one who tweets back at her. I'm not sure, but it was very funny. Anyway. So, right.

Ian's pulled a Tony Blair and he's gone off on holiday. And it feels like he has no real sense of anything. Remember, they haven't found her at this point. I feel like it would be different if they had found her in whatever state and then he'd been like, oh my God, my wife-to-be has just, you know, either been discovered or is dead or whatever and I just need to get away for a bit. That would be more understandable

than the fact that she has not been found. No. And also take into consideration that she's been missing for weeks and weeks and weeks by this point. It's not a few days and she might just be okay. Her bank account is untouched and she's been missing for weeks. Fears for Helen's safety were only growing day by day. He doesn't even really know how to pretend to be sad about it.

I think he's just trying, I mean, he's just trying to get away with it. He's just trying to wait long enough for everyone to forget all about it. He might even be more stupid than Fadi Nasri, honestly. I mean, yeah, I didn't think we'd see the day but i think that ian stewart might take the cake he'd take the whole fucking cake he would take the whole of the great british bakery where do cakes come from except mary berry you leave her alone oh have you been watching bake off the professionals no i'm only watching ultimate beast master at the moment because like i can't um okay you've got a narrow yeah I just I I can't watch anything that I care about at the moment like it just I've been watching a lot of

um 90 day fiance youtube clips on my like facebook watch top notch stream because obviously we share an ip address I gasped there and went yes because um I have finally watched something you had been telling me to watch for a very long time. And we can talk about it in Under the Duvet. Tell me who I am. I watched it. Oh my God. Okay, I'm so excited. It blew my mind.

Oh God, I'm so glad. What the fuck is happening? It's tense. It was hot. I was already sweaty and it was fucking tense. So yeah, I feel like we're probably getting to spoilers in under the duvet so if you haven't watched it yet don't listen to under the duvet until you've watched it but anyway let's get back to this for now so yeah he's gone

off on his stupid holiday but as soon as he was back the police were waiting for ian stewart and on the 11th of july 2016 exactly three months after Helen's disappearance, Ian Stewart was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Helen Bailey. And honestly, again, there is body cam footage of him being arrested, which I will share below because it is just so, seriously, it's the worst acting I've ever seen. It's the worst acting you'll ever see. He's just like, you're joking. What? I'm like, oh my my god just at least be silent you are such a buffoon and yeah he's arrested for murder and I kind of find it weird that when he's being told he's being arrested for murder he's not like is she dead he's just sort of like what what's happened you're

joking blah blah blah like I don't know. It's very weird. So Ian Stewart is taken to Stevenage Police Station, again, right next door from me, which is why I included which police station he was taken to. Completely irrelevant to the story. And when he was taken there to be questioned, in his first interview, he just remains completely silent. he doesn't say a word the only time the police officers get any response from him is a mumbled no when he was asked if he would financially gain from Helen's death but of course the answer is yes and why he lies about something that would

be so like demonstrably easy to prove I don know. I don't know why he does that. But the questioning was clearly getting nowhere because Ian Stewart wasn't talking, so the police needed to find Helen's body. Enter stage left, Helen's good friend and neighbour. She knew the house well, and she alerted police about an old well on the property that had been converted into a cesspit.

It was under a manhole cover in the garage. The police hadn't known this and something stuck out to them immediately. When they had arrested Ian at his house after he returned from his holiday, he'd said something weird. In amongst the your jokings, he noticed that the garage doors were open and he asked the police, quote, I haven't had the garage doors open. Or is that not to do with you? So on the 16th of July, the police quickly headed to the house to excavate the cesspit. And horrifyingly, in there, they found Helen's body and the body of Boris the dog. Leave the dogs alone.

Leave them out of it. I know. And it's so sad because, like, he'd also chucked, like, Boris's dog toys in there with him. I suppose maybe his thinking, I'm not defending him, obviously, but he probably thought that everyone would say, oh, well, Helen would never go anywhere without Boris.

So if Boris was at the house and she wasn't there, that was more suspect, maybe. Definitely. Everyone would have known. If Boris had been left behind, there was no way. They would have called the police immediately, probably. A hundred days after she had gone missing, Ian Stewart was formally charged with Helen Bailey's murder. In a tragic and darkly ironic twist,

Helen's heartbroken brother revealed that it had been a running joke in their family, that the cesspit would be a great place to hide a body. And at trial, the whole horrible truth came out. Ian Stewart had been drugging Helen with the sleeping pill Zopaclone that he'd been prescribed himself for months. And the evidence of it was in Helen's hair. So this explained Helen's odd behavior in the weeks and months before her disappearance. It had been a systematic and aggressive plan by

Ian Stewart. He was poisoning her. He was inducing her to feel incredibly sick for months and even though Helen had told people, she had told her mum, mum she had told her brother but she hadn't sort of made a huge fuss about it but she had been googling her symptoms things like why am I so tired all the time why do I keep falling asleep because she basically was googling things like that alluded to the fact that even though she was typing writing she would just fall asleep over her laptop so he is going hard for her. And I wonder, you know, what was the plan here? Because like, had Ian Stewart been trying to make Helen think that she was sick, maybe dying even? Is that why Helen redid her will before she died and before the wedding? Because Helen's will now said, once it had been redone that if she died before the

wedding so before they're legally married Ian would still receive a large chunk of her money as well as the 1.5 million pound house why was that change made why so urgently and I also wonder if because she was starting to sort of feel sick and she would have obviously told her husband that she was, her fiance that she was feeling that way. Is this how Ian Stewart had managed to convince her to give him power of attorney? It's hard to know exactly what Ian Stewart's plan was. But it's clear that he wanted Helen's money.

Like, had he always planned to kill her? I don't know. I mean, I don't know I mean I don't know he could have just been surfing the bereavement chat room for a millionaire author that he could kill and get a lot of her money or it might have been a plan that developed over time

it's so difficult to know but I think the love bombing does make him seem quite predatory in the first place that's a really good point and yeah we'll come back to it because we've got another thing to discuss with quite predatory in the first place. That's a really good point. And yeah, we'll come back to it because we've got another thing to discuss with that later on in the episode. But I think you're exactly right, like how predatory he comes across with his behavior

because it's very manipulative what he did. So the autopsy revealed, apart from the drugs shown in Helen's hair, revealed that Helen had died of suffocation between 10.30 a.m. and 1. between 10 30 a.m and 1 30 p.m and 1 30 p.m on the day that she vanished the 11th of July 2016 and I wonder what exactly had happened because he obviously had the will change to say that he would still get a lot of money before even if she died before the wedding but like why not just go through the through why not just go through with the wedding like surely you would get more money then I don't know and I wonder if like maybe Helen

had caught him maybe she'd realized that he was drugging her or something was going on and she'd confronted him and he killed her to cover it up I don't know but whatever had happened it seems that Ian Stewart had suffocated Helen and then dumped her body in the cesspit in the garage. Try again? In the garage. He had then killed Boris, like we said, because otherwise no one was going to believe his little missing person's charade if her dog had been left behind.

And in court, he does come across a pretty pathetic figure. He fluctuates between being very weird and cold to random bursts of emotion. You know, the classic crying, but with no actual tears. And his entire well-constructed alibi was falling apart. As he had revealed to police during interviews, Ian Stewart had been very busy the day that Helen vanished. He booked a doctor's appointment, he'd gone to the local bowls club and even ordered a Chinese takeaway. He'd moved money from her account into his just hours after her death

and also he'd gone to see a solicitor about trying to push things through on the sale of one of Helen's other properties. On the CCTV from Ian Stewart's self-confessed trip to the dump that day, it also looks like he's disposing of a bloody duvet. But given how much time had passed by the time police arrested Ian, any potential evidence there was lost. The defence tried to claim that Stewart didn't need Helen's money, but this argument was short-lived when the prosecution showed his empty bank account in the days before Helen's death. I think realising that this angle wouldn't work,

while in custody, Ian Stewart started to tell an entirely different story. He was now telling police that two men had come into his house, attacked him and kidnapped Helen. According to Ian, these two men were Nick and Joe. Apparently, they were business associates of Helen's first husband, John, and they had taken Helen away to solve a problem. Why are you giving them names? Why are you giving them names? I do not understand what is happening. He's so fucking stupid.

And when he was asked why he'd stayed silent on this entirely different story for quite so long, especially given that the police had specifically asked him about anyone blackmailing him or Helen, and he had said no. He claimed that he hadn't said anything because Nick had threatened him, and he'd threatened that he would never see Helen again

if he told anyone about them. And so he kept quiet for eight months after Helen's disappearance. Yeah, just kept quiet for eight months while he was on trial for fucking murder. And went on a holiday. And went on a holiday, yeah. And they found her body in your house. Like, he's just... And you know, I'm going to say like one of the main mistakes Stewart made, but he makes so,

so many, but this is probably one of the biggest, is that with his lie, he gave very specific descriptions of Nick and Joe. And this is kind of Ian Stewart's downfall all along, is that he gives such incredibly detailed, like, descriptions and lies that it's very easy to get confused. And it makes his sort of lack of knowledge about certain other things completely inconsistent. But here, he basically gives very, very detailed descriptions.

He's like, Nick is an Italian guy, he's tall, he's well-dressed, he's got a tan, all of this. Like, it's very specific. It's not your generic, you know, he's 5'10 with medium brown hair, blah, blah, blah. Very specific. And at trial, the prosecution were able to use these descriptions and present two men called Nick and Joe

who matched these descriptions perfectly. And guess what? These were two men that Ian Stewart had actually known when he had lived in Cambridge. He had just used two people he knew because he didn't even have the originality to come up with two fake people. This is how stupid this man is and

surely the whole point of the the intruder argument is so you can say you don't know who they are like if you describe two very real people that are very really connected to you they're gonna find them and they're gonna be like no here is my stone cold alibi i know and he also kind of by saying like oh you know they were they were associates of her first husband what the fuck it's just now he's trying to besmirch john's memory all of this shit he's just so stupid and like says unnecessary things just say you didn't know who they were that might have been more helpful but anyway obviously when they brought the real Nick and Joe into trial, they completely protest their innocence. But Ian Stewart has the gall to sit in the courtroom and continue to accuse them in front of these two men who prosecution obviously asked, if they had done it, why would they then dump Helen's body in your own house? And he says, oh, it's because they were trying to frame me. Of course, no one believes it. It's completely unbelievable. And finally, after a six-week trial at St. Albans Crown Court, Ian Stewart was found guilty of

murder, preventing a lawful burial, fraud, and three counts of perverting the course of justice. The judge closed with the statement, quote, I am firmly of the view that you currently pose a very real danger to women with whom you form a relationship. And I think you're right. I think it comes back to that predatory nature that you mentioned, Hannah. I think this man is a predator and he would do this again. So Ian Stewart was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years.

And thankfully, he'll be 90 years old before he can even apply for parole. Following his imprisonment, fresh details of the death of Ian Stewart's first wife started to surface. Like we said at the top of the show, his first wife, Diane Stewart, reportedly died after an epileptic seizure in the garden of their home in Cambridgeshire in 2010. His old neighbours came forward and said that they had visited him soon after Diane's death to see how he was coping, but they just found him defensive. And when they had asked him how she died,

he just seemed annoyed by the question. Police are re-examining this death in light of Stuart's conviction, and as of 2019, this investigation still seems to be ongoing. Interesting to note that after Diane's death, Stuart received £28,000 from the Cambridgeshire County Council, a £33,000 life insurance policy and £16,000 from a legal and general policy. We should also note that he bought an MG sports car three weeks later. Oh my god. To a like that I would I kind of would let him have that if she you know if we're saying that he had nothing to do with Diane's death I don't think

that's that out of the ordinary like fuck it my wife's dead my life's over I might as well have a nice car like I can understand that but like if it was anyone other than Ian Stewart yeah I just don't believe him I just don't believe him not the greatest guy, pretty straight in the bin for him, I think. Yeah, because I feel like he had it all with Helen, you know. He was like, he was going to marry her. She loved him. She thought she knew who he was. She was a millionaire. He was going to have a comfortable life. But he couldn't just have that.

He had to go and kill her. That's what just makes him such a deplorable person. And on the subject of poisoning, you would be forgiven for thinking that poisoning partners is usually a woman's game. And we've actually said it on the show quite a few times and shows that we've been interviewed on, we've been like, yep, yep, women poison. But it turns out, as Wired magazine puts it, is that is in fact an imperfect myth, one that's wrapped up in literature and legend. Sherlock Holmes, the famously not real detective,

said in the 1940 film Pursuit to Algiers that poison is a woman's weapon. Agatha Christie wrote the same thing. And that line of thinking is also pretty prevalent in Game of Thrones. And according to Wired, if you look at the stats, poison is actually pretty equal opportunities. Most recorded murderers are men, sure.

So it's possible that actually everyone's murdering everyone all the time and women are better at getting away with it. But as romantic as that notion might be, it's quite unlikely to be the whole truth. The U.S. Department of Justice reckon that 60.5% of poisoners are men. But we do have to take into account that women overall make up less than 10% of murders total. So once you strip away all of the other numbers and methods, it turns out that women are actually four times more likely than men are to use poison. But it doesn't mean that men never use it. And I think that is important to point out. It goes without saying that in the US the weapon of choice for most murders is firearms but in the UK they're

much more difficult to get hold of and everywhere in the world it's much more difficult to pass off a gunshot wound as an overdose or an extended illness that finally took someone's life and that's probably why Ian chose poison. He thought he would get away with it, and poisons are pretty easy to come by. All you have to do is lie to your GP, or, like, boil some apple seeds or something. Shooting Helen in the head or stabbing her in her sleep wouldn't have given Ian what he needed. He needed to control her.

He needed power of attorney. He needed her to change the will. And all of that was much more achievable once he'd worn her down into a drug-induced haze. Definitely, and I actually read a really interesting line will and all of that was much more achievable once he'd worn her down into a drug-induced haze. Definitely and I actually read a really interesting line about how domestic abuse isn't about the abuser losing control it's about the abuser taking and maintaining control and that's what he tries to do here. Stabbing or shooting her would have been that. Here he just wants absolute control and then he wants to dispose of her once he's done with it. So other than Ian

Stewart, scumbag, killing Helen, something else that really pissed me off with this case, as we kind of talked about at the start, was all of this sort of backlash that Helen got. Firstly from her grief blog people who were like pissed off that she was trying to be happy again. But something else happened because there was a lot of kind of weird victim blaming. And I want to say like even in 2016, but like, yeah, people are just shit. So like obviously it was still happening. And who specifically, Hannah, is Janet Street Porter?

Because I know who she is, but I'm like, why is she a relevant person? Explain to the people who are not in the UK and maybe even some who are in the UK. She's a TV presenter. Is that what she is? Yeah, and she's a columnist, sometimes an agony aunt, I believe. She's on Loose Women occasionally. Can you imagine writing to Janet Street Porter about a question you've got?

But anyway, so basically, Janet Street porter is what hannah just described her she goes on this show here called loose women and they just make kind of inane comments about things that i don't know oh my god do you know so we were watching um the the boris briefing the other day and um the advert that came up just before it was one for loose women and um i can't remember which one it was but the the main main one sort of delivers this line to camera. And she's like, and after this, we tackle the question on Loose Women. Can you be a feminist and still have a cleaner?

Do I live in satire? What? What? Oh, my God. Basically, for our international listeners, loose women is the view, but only white women and much less good. Like that's what it is.

They're all, what's her name? Meghan McCain. Actually, to be fair, I think they sometimes have Jamelia on. It's trash. It's absolute trash that just like is made to rile up housewives who sit at home and get angry watching it. I don't know. It's a weird premise. But anyway, Janet Street Porter is a regular on there. And on a particular episode of Loose Women, when Ian Stewart was sentenced, when the trial was over and he'd

been sentenced for Helen's murder, she said the following on TV,ote, what I find so extraordinary is that this woman, talking about Helen, was highly, highly intelligent. She was very honest about her feelings. And yet she was so smart in some ways and so dumb in others. Basically saying that Helen was dumb because Ian Stewart murdered her. Okay, explain it to me. Explain it to me, Janet. I was hesitant to slag off Janet because I don't think women should pull other women down. But that's what she's doing. Yep. To someone who is dead. And someone who is dead and has died at the hands of her partner like thousands and thousands and thousands of women do in this country and all over the world all the fucking time.

And she is not helping that cause in any way she is actively hampering it because this is the kind of bullshit that people think that if you somehow got murdered by your partner it's because you were too stupid to get out of it i just it really fucked me off and she's yeah yeah but it's okay she got a lot of backlash for that uh rightfully so and anyway let's leave her behind and go back to Helen. Because a diary entry that Helen made just months before her disappearance just broke my heart.

Because like we said, Helen was trying to move on. It had been five years since John had died. She wanted to be happy again. She wanted to have a happy life. But you can tell that after losing John, Ian Stewart, no matter how much she did like him, was probably never going to measure up. And she wrote this.

We'd been out to dinner at someone's house and we were walking back along the road and the sky was inky black and I suddenly realised that I didn't know any of these people a few years ago. I didn't know Ian. I didn't know the people we'd been for dinner with. I'd never even heard of Royston. And for this split moment, the grief, just.

And I thought, John, just come back and rescue me. Just come back. The big experiment's over now. And I felt so alone, so isolated. And that just broke my heart because yeah poor Helen poor Helen but also she's not just a victim you know she was a fucking amazing author she was well respected she was loved and let's remember her in that way and not link to Ian Stewart because he's just a piece of shit who's exactly where he deserves to be. That is that guys. Let us know what you think. Let us know what your 2020 walk away is going to be. The thing you're going to walk away with. Let us know.

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And I don't even know what we've got, but we've got loads coming up. We've got a great In The News coming, etc., etc. And if you want to hear a chat about some random shit, come join us in Under the Duvet immediately after this for $5 and up patrons over on that platform. Goodbye.

Goodbye. Thank you. and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now

exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health.

This is season two of Finding and this time if all goes to plan we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and and finding natasha exclusively and ad free on wondery plus join wondery plus in the wondery app apple podcasts or spotify