Neighbours have spoken of their disbelief at the death of an elderly couple in a seaside town as forensic officers examine a boat on their driveway. Detectives launched an investigation after the discovery of the two bodies at a house in Anthony’s Avenue, Poole, Dorset, at 11.35am on Tuesday December 31.
The couple have been named locally as Heather and Michael Newton. Neighbour Edward Ramsbottom, 86, told the PA news agency: “I couldn’t really believe it, we are just trying to think what it could have been about. “We have heard that she was ill, with Huntington’s disease, but we didn’t know that until now, it’s very sad.”.
Mr Ramsbottom said that Mrs Newton used to work as a secretary at the former Dormy Hotel in Ferndown while he understood that Mr Newton was involved in the road construction industry. He added that Mrs Newton was a “sleeping director” of Priesthawes Farms in Pevensey, East Sussex, which he said he understood to have been her family’s farm and where they would visit at Christmas time.
Mr Ramsbottom said: “They were very pleasant, they had their little boat and used to go out in the harbour. “When he brought it back to the house in early November I said ‘What a rotten summer you have had’ but he replied, ‘Oh no, we went out quite a few times and enjoyed it’.
