Postmistress Death: Husband Arrested

I'm wondering if the missing money is the root of this crime. Lots of witnesses around who did not see any suspicious person leaving the shop. Robin Garbutt may have taken the money from the safe in the early morning when it was quiet, after beating his wife to death and hidden it, when there was no one around. Or he may have done something with the money earlier than that, Diana found the safe empty and maybe confronted her husband. Just my speculating here that perhaps Mr Garbutt was a gambler, but I guess the details discovered by the police will come out at the trial. I do think the money is key though. Just my opinion.

Postmistress's husband in court charged with murder


The husband of a postmistress who was found dead at her village store has appeared in court charged with murder.

Diana Garbutt, 40, was found dead in the upstairs living quarters of Melsonby Post Office, in North Yorkshire, on 23 March.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had suffered serious head injuries.

Robin Garbutt, 44, was remanded in custody at Northallerton Magistrates' Court. He will next appear at Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday.

During a two-minute hearing Mr Garbutt spoke only to confirm his name and state his date of birth and address.

The murder investigation began after police responded to reports of a robbery at the post office in East Road and discovered Mrs Garbutt's body.

I imagine that the money was removed and put somewhere in order to make the break-in story seem more plausible. I reckon this man killed his wife in a fit of anger and then set about inventing a story to try to cover up what had happened. No doubt if he'd been able to he would have removed her body from the premises and claim she'd gone missing..

fedrules wrote:I imagine that the money was removed and put somewhere in order to make the break-in story seem more plausible. I reckon this man killed his wife in a fit of anger and then set about inventing a story to try to cover up what had happened. No doubt if he'd been able to he would have removed her body from the premises and claim she'd gone missing..

Fedrules, I think you have a good point here. If he was in the shop at 4.30am, then I would assume they sold newspapers and had to be up for the very early deliveries, to sort papers out for local deliveries then and be open for those people who want to buy a newspaper on the way to early shifts of work. If he killed his wife in the early morning, he wouldn't have been able to shift the body before all that started happening.

I don't know how to highlight but there's a paragraph in the link below saying there was an armed raid on the Post Office last year. No one has been arrested for it, I wonder if this was his second time at stealing the cash? Maybe she caught him emptying the Safe this time and an arguement followed?


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/husband-of-woman-found-dead-in-post-office-is-arrested-1945354.html

wjk wrote:I don't know how to highlight but there's a paragraph in the link below saying there was an armed raid on the Post Office last year. No one has been arrested for it, I wonder if this was his second time at stealing the cash? Maybe she caught him emptying the Safe this time and an arguement followed?


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/husband-of-woman-found-dead-in-post-office-is-arrested-1945354.html

This has crossed my mind too, wjk. Reports of that robbery just say "staff," at the shop, I think, but I do wonder about that robbery being a fake. Those village shops don't do so well now that most people have cars and the out-of-town retail parks are all over the place.