A British mother has been found dead near King Charles’ Sandringham Estate, and a man has been charged with her murder.
Prosecutors said police found Hannah Cain, 45, unconscious in an upstairs bedroom at her home on Fern Hill in Dersingham—about a mile from the King’s estate—in the early hours of Oct. 4.
Mark Cain, 45, who police said lives at the Fern Hill address, was arrested and taken to the King’s Lynn Police Investigation Centre. He was charged with murder two days later, according to Michael Devaney of the Crown Prosecution Service in a press release.
Mark did not enter a plea during his Oct. 7 hearing at Norwich Magistrates’ Court, ITV News reported. Oxygen was unable to identify a lawyer representing him.
“We are in the very early stages of this investigation working to establish the exact circumstances surrounding the woman’s death,” Detective Inspector Alix Wright of the Norfolk & Suffolk Major Investigation Team said in a press release. “I’d ask anyone who believes they may have information that could help our investigation to please share this with us.”
Investigators have not publicly confirmed the relationship between Hannah and Mark. British news outlets have reported that he was her husband.
Prosecutor Jacqui Hanlon told the court that police were called to the couple’s home, where children were present, following reports that a man had been stabbed in a suspected robbery, The Telegraph reported.
“A Home Office pathologist report noted a blunt force injury to the right side of her head had been inflicted,” Hanlon said. “There was also an injury which could be suggested was caused by a compression to the neck.”
Hannah, who worked professionally under the name Hannah Terry, was a doctor at Grimston Medical Centre in Norfolk.
The medical center temporarily closed “due to extremely difficult circumstances affecting our practice team.” A notice on its website said it would not comment publicly on Hannah’s death.
A neighbor in his 90s told The Times that he rarely saw the Cain family.
“The children were lovely — two boys and a younger girl,” he said. “They used to kick their football into my garden, and I’d throw it back to them, or they’d come and ask me if they could come in and look for it.”
Hannah’s family said they were “devastated” by her death.
“We are incredibly proud of the woman she was and of the great care she took of all her patients who knew her as Dr. Terry,” her family said in a statement published by Norfolk police. “She was kind, generous and loving; a beloved mother, daughter, sister, auntie, daughter-in-law and friend.”
Mark is due to appear in court again on Oct. 8, according to District Judge Matthew Bone.
Representatives for Norfolk Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s requests for comment.
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