Richard Okorogheye: Met Police provide update on search

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On March 6, Edwin Williams, 74, died in a car fire and was found in the driver’s seat. An inquest found the retired Met Police officer was locked in a dispute with neighbours.

Firefighters who arrived in the village of Cavendish in Suffolk on March 6, described a car “fully involved in fire”.

The blaze then began to spread to two nearby cars.

In a statement, Mark Hill, watch manager of Clare fire station, said a man at the scene was concerned.

“That’s my neighbour’s car,” the man told him and suggested there was an occupant.

The fire was extinguished and a body was identified in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, whose registered keeper was Mr Williams.

The body was formally identified as Mr Williams by dental records.

During the inquest, Pc Emma Stacey was told a friend who had been staying with Mr Williams in the days before his death had said he was involved in an “ongoing neighbour dispute”.

She shared the dispute “had been going on for 11 years and was due to be heard in court”.

The friend added Mr Williams had received a letter from solicitors stating he could have four further weeks to prepare for the trial but not the eight weeks he had sought.

Suffolk’s senior coroner, Nigel Parsley, said the dispute concerned water ingress, guttering and roofing.

Mr Parsely said Mr Williams had started the legal proceedings with his previous neighbours and then with the new owners of the house.

He ruled Mr Williams death as a suicide.

The coroner said fire investigation officers “believe the most likely cause of the fire was it was started deliberately from inside the vehicle”.

His GP notes said he had a history of depression.

The fire service report said there was no indication Mr Williams had been trapped.

Jean Williams, Mr Williams’s wife who was separated from him, shared she felt leaving the police force had a “considerable effect on Ed”.

She said: “I believe he found it quite hard to adjust to the outside world.”

Mrs Williams added her deceased husband had a distinguished career, working on high profile cases before retiring from the Met in 1995 after 30 years of service, then working as a teacher.

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